MediaTek Publishes Case Study on T5SE Handheld Barcode Scanner

You walk into a large retail store looking to find a particular item, hoping to get in and out quickly. You head to the aisle where you expect to find the item, but to no avail. You flag down a store employee, asking if they have the item in stock. They aren’t sure, and since they’re only carrying an inventory scanner, they point you to another employee with a radio, where you repeat your request. That employee believes they have the item in stock and located in one of two other aisles, but not in the color you wanted. The employee disappears to check the stock room and fifteen minutes later, return empty handed and tell you to order online. You head home and wonder why you even left the house in the first place? We’ve all had this disappointing and frustrating experience.

Now imagine a much more pleasant experience: you walk into the same large retail store looking for the same item. You flag down an employee for help and the employee asks you for some information about what you’re looking for. They type that information into the screen of a lightweight, handheld device that hangs from a lanyard around their neck and has a name tag that clearly distinguishes the employee. The employee walks you straight to the correct aisle and even though the store doesn’t have the item in the color you want, you order it from the employee right there in the isle, including completing payment by swiping your credit card through a reader attached to the employee’s handheld device. You leave the store satisfied, feeling like the trip out of the house was worthwhile. For many different reasons, this second hypothetical offers a much more pleasant, fruitful customer experience.

For most consumers, the frustrating and unfulfilling experience represents the norm with most brick and mortar, big box retailers, often times because the most useful devices to help streamline and improve the customer experience are too expensive for comprehensive deployment to each associate. And when a retail associate does receive a device, it usually doesn’t offer a one-stop-shop solution, requiring store associates to often utilize multiple devices throughout each shift in order fulfill their responsibilities.

Hired by one of the world’s largest retailers to re-envision the in-store experience, Social Mobile set out to solve this critical business challenge. This large retail client was looking for an all-in-one device that was versatile enough to perform all necessary functions, in a form factor that wasn’t prohibitively heavy or cumbersome—in fact, the client was hoping the device would be lightweight enough so that employees could wear them on a lanyard around their neck for an entire shift. In sum, a Goliath sized task in a David sized device.

The result: Social Mobile’s Rhino T5se, a unique, first-of-its kind device. A hand-held, lightweight, ambidextrous device that comes with battery life sufficient for an entire shift (and in the event of overtime, the T5se comes with an additional modular battery). The top-of-the-line Honeywell scanner built into the device makes the run of the mill stockroom scanner feel like a dinosaur. And, as a GMS-certified device, the Rhino T5se receives 90-day security updates. The Rhino T5se also has global LTE bands for multinational corporations looking to roll out a device on one global SKU—and because the T5se was designed to handle anything and everything, procurement and deployment is simplified to a one-size-fits-all solution. Perfect for the intense demands of a retail environment, warehouse management, or logistics, the Rhino T5se offers a turn-key solution businesses didn’t even know was possible.

“When presented with this opportunity, we knew we had to hit it out of the park, and I think that mindset really shines through in the finished product. The precision of thought and detail applied throughout the entire design and manufacturing process allowed us to create a device that has yet to be found on the market today,” said Robert Morcos, Chief Executive Officer of Social Mobile.

Solving this critical retail business challenge with the Rhino T5se would not have been possible without the long-standing partnership shared by Social Mobile and MediaTek. MediaTek’s team of innovative specialists helped the Social Mobile team breathe life into their vision, and through that collaboration the T5se was born. MediaTek’s AIoT i500P cellular IoT chipset helps power the Rhino T5se and “Social Mobile has yet again leveraged the MediaTek i500P platform brilliantly in creating the hand-held device and this time their innovation enables a smooth retail experience for the consumers. With octa-core processors and cellular and Wi-Fi/BT 5.0 connectivity all integrated on this single SoC, the MediaTek’s i500P lives up to the needs of the innovative device makers such as Social Mobile that are looking for higher performance, faster wireless connections and low power consumption as they cater to needs of the retail industry.” said Sunil Chhugani, Director, US Sales and Business Development, MediaTek.

“We knew that there was room for exponential improvement in the retail consumer experience, and we needed the right partners in order to capitalize on that. Working with MediaTek on this project allowed us to produce a truly one-of-a-kind, cutting-edge device that improved efficiency right out of the box and provided an instant ROI for our clients,” said Robert Morcos, CEO of Social Mobile.

Since its inception, Social Mobile has been a trusted source for clients across verticals looking for a partner with a proven track record of bringing innovative enterprise devices to market. Social Mobile has a history of recognized thought leadership in the enterprise space, known for creating unique form-factors and achieving Google Mobile Services (GMS) certification for its many “first-ever” devices.

This article was originally published by MediaTek.