Xplore grows UK market presence

Xplore Technologies Corp., the rugged tablet manufacturer and ultra-rugged tablet PC provider, is to grow its UK market presence following the acquisition of Motion Computing's rugged product lines.

Founded in 1996, two years before Google was even launched, Xplore was one of the first manufacturers to design and bring to market a rugged tablet PC.

Xplore's business is built on its origins as a vertical industry mobility expert and now provides the most complete line of Windows and Android rugged tablets in the world to almost every global industry. This includes Xplore's flagship XC6 tablet PC platform, now in its fifth generation as the world's most ultra-rugged tablet PC, as well as the newly integrated Motion rugged tablet product family. Motion's products – which had been a mainstay in many UK private and public sector organisations – will continue to be marketed, sold and serviced under the "Motion by Xplore" brand.

"Many people and businesses believe that the first enterprise-grade tablets were introduced in the consumer market, starting when the iPad first became available in 2010. Xplore was in its 14th year of production by then," said Ian Davies, UK Sales Director, Xplore.

"Military and utilities markets around the world are well-versed in rugged tablet technology and use, but many public sector, manufacturing, distribution, and public safety industry users are just beginning to get to grips with the money-saving, time-saving and customer service improvement potential of rugged tablets purpose-built for their operating environments," he said.

There is still some confusion over what defines "rugged", with some business and public sector tablet users believing that a consumer-market tablet can be made rugged by the use of external cases and screen covers.

"The fact is that no matter how good the case, the consumer-based tablets inside are not designed or built to tolerate the vibration, extreme temperatures, drops, dust ingress or exposure to moisture that defines true rugged protection. Using a non-rugged device when these work environment challenges are present can quickly bring a worker, a department or a company to a halt," said Ian Davies.

As VDC Research has validated, consumer-based tablets deployed in business or public sector are proven to cost two-and-a-half times as much as rugged tablets during a typical service life, whether through harsh environment failure, or simply needing to be replaced more frequently due to insufficient processors or storage capacities, for example. As well as being massively more tolerant to harsh environments, Xplore rugged tablets have built-in features - based on military standards of mobile computer construction - to ensure they operate come what may. This includes aspects such as significantly better aerials allowing data connection and download where and when consumer-based tablets cannot.