Machine vision leader expands its addressable market by $500 million
with smartphone-based mobile terminals powered by Cognex's advanced
barcode reading technology
NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leading supplier of
machine vision systems and industrial barcode readers used in factory
automation and logistics, today announced that it has developed, and is
now offering for sale, a totally new product line—ruggedized mobile
terminals.
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Cognex MX-1000 Vision-enabled Mobile Terminal (Photo: Business Wire).
Cognex's MX-1000 series of mobile terminals offers manufacturers,
logistics companies and many other organizations that currently rely on
expensive, inflexible and purpose-built mobile terminals a revolutionary
new method for performing tasks such as inventory management, logistics
and field service. The MX-1000 combines the ease-of-use, low-cost and
flexibility of off-the-shelf smartphones together with a rugged
hand-held assembly that holds both the phone and a specially designed
Cognex barcode reader that outperforms competitors' laser-based and
camera-based systems. Cognex expects that this unique combination will
enable it to become a major player in a $500 million segment of the
mobile terminal market.
Cognex designed the MX-1000 after detailed discussions with leading
companies that use mobile terminals and who are also customers of
Cognex's machine vision products and barcode readers. These customers
were dissatisfied with their current mobile terminals, which they
described as proprietary, expensive, closed systems that are both
difficult to build applications on and costly to maintain. They urged
Cognex to design a flexible mobile terminal that includes Cognex's
field-proven barcode reading technology. Early units of the MX-1000 have
been undergoing field testing by a number of Fortune 500 companies, and
Cognex is now receiving orders from them.
"The initial versions of our mobile terminal will offer Cognex's
superior capability for reading both 1-D and 2-D barcodes, but the
hardware in each unit is a complete Cognex vision engine that is capable
of far more than just reading barcodes," said Dr.
Robert J. Shillman, Founder and Chairman of Cognex. "I envision that
in the near future, customers will ask us to add other valuable
vision-based capabilities such as optical character recognition (OCR),
package dimensioning and inspection."
"Cognex is disrupting the market for mobile terminals by offering
customers the power, ease-of-use and low cost of Android® and iOS®-based
smartphones together with Cognex's barcode reading technology," said Robert
J. Willett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cognex.
"Customers no longer need to choose between ruggedness and flexibility;
with the Cognex MX-1000, they'll get the best of both together with
industry-leading DataMan® technology for reading barcodes reliably, even
under the most difficult conditions."
"This is an innovative approach to augmenting the functionality of
today's modern mobile devices. It comes at a time of significant
disruption and transition in the mobile terminal market because of the
phasing out of existing Microsoft® WindowsCE® and WindowsMobile® 6.x
powered handheld terminals as these platforms reach end of life (EOL),"
said David
Krebs, Executive VP, Enterprise Mobility & Connected Devices, VDC
Research. "With the MX-1000, Cognex is offering its customers a unique
option to address industrial class data collection on ubiquitous modern
smartphones without sacrificing ruggedness and environmental
requirements. Furthermore, the ability to future proof investments is a
particularly unique and important differentiator."
Watch this brief video for analysis on the latest trends in the
ruggedized mobile terminal market: www.cognex.com/mobileterminal.
About Cognex Corporation
Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range
of products that incorporate sophisticated machine vision technology
that gives them the ability to "see." Cognex products include barcode
readers, machine vision sensors and machine vision systems that are used
in factories, warehouses and distribution centers around the world to
guide, gauge, inspect, identify and assure the quality of items during
the manufacturing and distribution process. Cognex is the world's leader
in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 1 million
vision-based products, representing over $4 billion in cumulative
revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. Headquartered in Natick,
Massachusetts, USA, Cognex has regional offices and distributors located
throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For details visit Cognex
online at www.cognex.com.
Certain statements made in this news release, which do not relate
solely to historical matters, are forward-looking statements. These
statements can be identified by use of the words "expects,"
"anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "projects," "intends," "plans,"
"will," "may," "shall," "could," "should," and similar words and other
statements of a similar sense. These forward-looking statements,
which include statements regarding business and market trends, future
financial performance, customer order rates, expected areas of growth,
research and development activities, new product initiatives, future
stock repurchases, investments, and strategic plans, involve known and
unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those projected. Such risks and
uncertainties include: (1) the loss of a large customer; (2) current and
future conditions in the global economy; (3) the reliance on revenue
from the consumer electronics or automotive industries; (4) the
inability to penetrate new markets; (5) the inability to achieve
significant international revenue; (6) fluctuations in foreign currency
exchange rates and the use of derivative instruments; (7) information
security breaches or business system disruptions; (8) the inability to
attract and retain skilled employees; (9) the reliance upon key
suppliers to manufacture and deliver critical components for our
products; (10) the failure to effectively manage product transitions or
accurately forecast customer demand; (11) the inability to design and
manufacture high-quality products; (12) the technological obsolescence
of current products and the inability to develop new products; (13) the
failure to properly manage the distribution of products and services;
(14) the inability to protect our proprietary technology and
intellectual property; (15) our involvement in time-consuming and costly
litigation; (16) the impact of competitive pressures; (17) the
challenges in integrating and achieving expected results from acquired
businesses; (18) potential impairment charges with respect to our
investments or for acquired intangible assets or goodwill; (19) exposure
to additional tax liabilities; and (20) the other risks detailed in
Cognex reports filed with the SEC, including its Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. You should not place undue
reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as
of the date made. Cognex disclaims any obligation to update
forward-looking statements after the date of such statements.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160404005005/en/
Cognex Corporation
Susan Conway, 508-650-3353
Senior Director
of Investor Relations
susan.conway@cognex.com
Source: Cognex Corporation
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