Zebra Technologies, a major producer of thermal bar code printers, is expanding beyond its core market in an effort to fuel what company officials expect will be 15% to 20% revenue growth this year.
Later this year, Zebra expects to roll out beta versions of a machine that will both print a bar code label and use an attached antenna to encode an accompanying, embedded RFID chip. The company showed a prototype printer/encoder to reporters during a recent tour of its headquarters and factory in Vernon Hills, IL.
Separately, Zebra is developing technology to monitor the status of printers across a computer network and ultimately hopes to control and manage the hardware. Zebra printers now can operate over wireless and Ethernet networks. The company also offers software that interfaces with ERP systems and extracts data it then feeds to third-party label design software.