Zebra's new RFD8500 sled now available

The RFD8500, Zebra Technologies’ first multi-operating system RFID sled, is now available. Zebra, which supplies products and services that enable real-time visibility into organisations’ assets, people and transactions, designed the RFD8500 to easily add high-performance RFID and 1D/2D barcode scanning to Android and iOS mobile devices in Asia-Pacific. 

The RFD8500 also cost-effectively transforms Zebra mobile devices, such as the TC55 and MC40, into handheld RFID readers. RFID technologies are enabling widespread changes in multiple industries across Asia-Pacific over the years, especially in the areas of inventory management, warehousing management, and tracking.

The RFD8500 can be utilised in many verticals including retail, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing and commercial services. With its 600 tags per second read speed, the RFID sled has proven to address business challenges such as performance and productivity.

Ryan Goh, vice-president and general manager, Zebra Technologies, Asia-Pacific, explained: “The RFD8500 will address fundamental business needs such as exibility, operational visibility, performance, durability and ease-of-use. As economies in Asia-Pacific grow steadily, companies are competing on various battlegrounds for bigger market share and more customers. At the same time, they are trying to curb or reduce cost.

“The RFD8500 is a cost-effective option for achieving these goals by enabling multiple applications including managing product stocks, locating items, planning shipments, tracking assets and data.”

Zebra’s lightweight, ergonomicRFD8500 also oers other benets. The sled:

• Enables businesses to leverage previous mobile device investments by adding world-class data collection capabilities.
• Offers full-shift battery life, making it ideal for inventory and asset management, product search and replenishment applications in retail stores, warehouses and healthcare environments.
• Provides businesses with the  flexibility to communicate with a variety of host devices to read and write to EPC Class 1 Gen 2 UHF tags and capture 1D and 2D barcodes via Bluetooth. It also supports select features of the EPC Gen 2v2 standard providing retailers with additional protection of consumer privacy and against counterfeit products. 
• Features patent-pending antenna technology which represents a breakthrough design that provides maximum omni-directional range, read/ write performance and coverage.
• Is available with a comprehensive accessory ecosystem including multiple adaptors that enable devices to easily mount onto the sled for easy single handed operation.