Zebra is a global leader in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (“AIDC”)
market. The AIDC market consists of mobile computing, data capture, radio frequency
identification devices ("RFID"), barcode printing and other automation
products and services. Zebra’s solutions are proven to help our customers
and end-users achieve their mission critical strategic business objectives,
including improved efficiency and workflow management, increased productivity
and asset utilization, real-time, actionable enterprise information, and better
customer experiences.
We design, manufacture, and sell a broad range of AIDC products, including:
mobile computers, barcode scanners, RFID readers, wireless LAN ("WLAN")
products, specialty printers for barcode labeling and personal identification,
real-time location systems (“RTLS”), related accessories and supplies,
such as self-adhesive labels and other consumables, and utilities and application
software. End-users of our products include those in the retail, transportation
and logistics, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, warehouse and distribution,
energy and utilities, and education industries around the world. We provide
our products and services globally through a direct sales force and extensive
network of partners. We provide products and services in over 170 countries,
with approximately 120 facilities and 7,000 employees worldwide.
Through innovative application of our technologies, we are leading an evolution
of the AIDC market into Enterprise Asset Intelligence (“EAI”) solutions,
which reflect an operational framework of “sense, analyze, and act.”
Specifically, EAI encompasses solutions, which automatically sense information
from enterprise assets, including packages moving through a supply chain, equipment
in a factory, workers in warehouse, and shoppers in a store. Operational data
from these assets, including status, location, utilization, or preferences,
is then analyzed to provide actionable insights. Finally, with the benefits
of mobility, these insights can be acted upon to drive better and more timely
decisions by the user anywhere and anytime. As a result, our solutions and technologies
enable enterprise users to improve operational effectiveness and achieve critical
business objectives by becoming smarter and more connected.
The evolution of the AIDC market to a more strategically oriented EAI focus
is being driven by strong underlying secular trends in technology. These trends
include internet of things ("IoT"), cloud based data analytics, and
mobility. The IoT is enabling a proliferation of connected devices. This enables
our EAI solutions to capture and utilize real-time information from a broad
range of connected sensors compared to typical AIDC solutions, which primarily
draw upon only one sensor (e.g. a barcode). Cloud computing and expanded data
analytics are allowing enterprises to make better business decisions through
improved timeliness and visibility to information and workflows. While AIDC
solutions sporadically capture limited amounts of data and populate static enterprise
systems, EAI solutions continuously analyze real-time data from many sources
to generate actionable insights. Finally, the continued rapid growth of mobile
devices and applications are significantly expanding mobile computing use cases
to levels of near ubiquity in the enterprise. With expanded mobility, end-users
are able to consume or act upon dynamic enterprise data and information anytime
and anywhere. The broad availability of wireless and internet connectivity also
supports the adoption and deployment of Zebra solutions to enable organizations
to collect more data in real-time on the location, movement, and condition of
their assets.
Our operations consist of two segments - (1) Enterprise, comprised of our mobile
computing, data capture, RFID and WLAN products, and services and (2) Legacy
Zebra, comprised of barcode and card printing, location solutions, supplies,
and services.