Motorola's bar code reader handset for supermarket fun

IF BAR CODE READERS are a personal hobby of yours then you might want to shell out over £500 for Motorola's ES400 mobile handset, perhaps as a gift for the kidz because it can withstand being dropped up to 150 times in line with military standard MIL-STD 810G.

Shipping in the UK from August, with its fingerprint reader and remote handset control feature you'll know which of your children are using it and can stop nefarious use at a considerable distance. If that isn't enough then use the push-to-talk feature for walkie-talkie like function to shout "wait till you, and your [insert relevant parent] gets home!". Individual purchases could be difficult though as the handset is primarily to be sold through distributors with organisations ordering thousands at a time. Not if you're the CIO however.

Powered by a Qualcomm chipset and using Windows Mobile 6.5.3 it has the Motorola Enterprise User Interface wrapped around it. The ES400 has a camera that can bar code read, GPS with navigation software, a g-sensor and a 3-inch resistive screen. This is for stylus use for signature capture as well as touch control. Motorola expects to offer OS updates to replace 6.5.3 with Windows embedded hand held later this year and in the second half of 2011 the Windows 7 derived version of Windows embedded hand held could be available.

ES400 product manager Andrew McBain said "we expect to hit" a sales target of over one million units in Europe over a 12 to 18-month period. The company estimates the worldwide mobile business device market to be about $2.5 billion and it is aiming to capture $1 billion, or 1.3 million units sold, with the ES400. Potential customers in Europe in retail and healthcare already have sample handsets to trial them. Motorola did not expect any contracts to be signed before shipment commenced.

For those of you who prefer to use your handset in French or German there are alternate keypads to the English qwerty style. RFID technology enthusiasts will have to wait because Motorola is still considering a snap-on unit that would add that capability to the ES400. µ