Here is the development process and the beauty shots of our MC70/75 terminal. Very cool project, we see them used all over the place every day. This is probably one of our most successful products ever, in terms of $$. It has been in production since 2005 in various configurations and updates. As for volume production, this should be now well into the 7 figures, which is a huge number for such a special enterprise rugged, non-consumer product. Most of you will probably have signed on the screen with a pen to sign off your UPS, FEDEX or any other courier, because all of them have used this product at some point or some location/country.
This shot illustrates the huge amount of human factors research and work to get from A to Z: Screen size evaluations, different aspect ratios, resolutions, available components, nice-to-have vs must-have components and, most importantly, modularity! This beast has been designed with multiple housing options: - different keyboard configurations/layouts - different scan and imager engines - different antennas etc - multiple battery options (and hence different covers)
CNC-machined evaluation models for the different keyboard layouts: size of buttons, placement, feel, shape, no stone was left unturned...
Alias wireframe of early data; all surfacing data from us is always the final production/tooling data; brought into ProE or Solidworks, but our engineering friends don't have to interpret or rebuild, our data is clean for tooling!
Pre-production renders with all details, including the regulatory graphics which, as you may notice, are always a tough (and in many cases - ugly) requirement for a rugged product that incorporates high tech lasers/LEDs.
Many, many appearance models were built to different CMF spec (color, material, finish)
First shot units for eval
More human factors testing with pre-production units on button feel, force, size
The finished MC75
The devil is in the detail, even stylus storage, release mechanisms and textures contribute to the overall success of the product as a well-thought, well designed complete package
OK, thicker than our smartphones (which some delivery drivers sadly have to use, we see many with cracked screens looking like they are about to die), but this one is survival of the fittest: 6ft drop to concrete, hundreds of tumbles, IP65 sealing This MC75 can be dropped, used in the rain, tossed in the truck and keep working; you won't see cracked screens on this one either...
details, details...
One of the details shots with an imager engine embedded; many other options are available
As we can demonstrate, this is not a one-off product :)
The 3 configs of the MC70
Thanks for reviewing!
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Symbol Technologies MC70

Designed to withstand all-day everyday use for the mobile worker in nearly any environment, this rugged compact device delivers true anywhere, anytime wireless WAN/LAN/PAN voice and data communications, including superior voice functionality, advanced data capture and the power to run nearly any application. Multiple scanning and imaging options in the MC70 enhance worker accuracy and productivity when collecting, entering and communicating information from the point of service. The highly complex design of the MC70 needed to exude toughness and reliability as a wireless data management tool, but also needed to accommodate many different configurations for battery, antenna and scanning options. The MC70 Symbol’s fastest selling data terminal in the market place.

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Thinkable Studio
Industrial Design Consultancy Offenburg, Germany