RFID Pioneers Symbol Technologies and Philips Announce RFID Generation

HOLTSVILLE, N.Y., April 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Symbol Technologies, Inc. , The Enterprise Mobility Company(TM), and Royal Philips Electronics today announced an agreement to cooperate in the development of Electronic Product Code (EPC) Generation 2 (Gen 2) solutions. Gen 2 is the next generation of the widely accepted EPC RFID standard being implemented globally by a number of the world's leading retailers.

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Targeted at a limited number of customers, Symbol's Gen 2 Evaluation program will allow customers to simultaneously evaluate prototype Gen 2 fixed readers, Gen 2 tags, and Gen 2 portable terminal readers as a system, allowing realistic modeling of complete business processes using UHF Generation 2 technology.

"As one of the market leaders in the deployment of EPC Generation 1 technology, Symbol has a deep commitment to making the transition from Gen 1 to Gen 2 smooth and seamless for our customers," said Todd Hewlin, senior vice president and general manager of Symbol's Global Products Group. "Along with our partners like Philips, Symbol is committed to making EPC Gen 2 the global open standard that customers can depend on to implement RFID with confidence."

Gen 2 represents a simplification and expansion of the existing EPC Generation 1 standard, and is an important enabler for RFID market expansion. Gen 2 emerged from a standards process managed by EPCglobal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Uniform Code Council and EAN International, the global standards bodies responsible for the broad adoption of the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code.

"Achieving rapid interoperability will be a critical success factor in enabling our customers to realize the benefits of Gen 2," said Reinhard Kalla, VP & General Manager of Philips Semiconductors' Identification business. "We anticipate that by the end of the second quarter of 2005, we will be providing joint solutions to a number of customers as part of Symbol's previously announced EPC Gen 2 Early Adopter Program."

More information on Symbol's family of RFID solutions is available at http://www.symbol.com/rfid.

About Symbol Technologies

Symbol Technologies, Inc., The Enterprise Mobility Company(TM), is a recognized worldwide leader in enterprise mobility, delivering products and solutions that capture, move and manage information in real time to and from the point of business activity. Symbol enterprise mobility solutions integrate advanced data capture products, radio frequency identification technology, mobile computing platforms, wireless infrastructure, mobility software and world-class services programs under the Symbol Enterprise Mobility Services brand. Symbol enterprise mobility products and solutions are proven to increase workforce productivity, reduce operating costs, drive operational efficiencies and realize competitive advantages for the world's leading companies. More information is available at http://www.symbol.com/.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion in 2004). With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 161,500 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/.

For Symbol Technologies: For media information: Bill Abelson Symbol Technologies, Inc. 631.738.4751 abelsonb@symbol.com For financial information: For industry analyst information: Nancy Tully Shirley Schroedl Symbol Technologies, Inc. Symbol Technologies, Inc. 631.738.5050 631.738.4823 tullyn@symbol.com schroeds@symbol.com For Philips: For media information: Derrick Meyer Tel. 408.474.5929 derrick.meyer@philips.com