Some old technologies have a new face while new technologies keep finding their way into supply chain applications. Supply chain technology is on the move in more ways than one. Not only is there growth in the type of mobile technology being used, mature technologies are also on the road to innovation. Mature is a relative term when it comes to mobile technologies. What happens in months in the consumer market may happen in years on the industrial side. That's not to say the technology doesn't keep advancing, but purchases on the business-to-business side may bypass a generation or two of updates. Psion hopes to enable easier upgrades for users. It has recently released a series of modular rugged mobile devices allowing customers to swap out modules in the devices, rather than having to replace the whole device. In years past, according to Mike Wills, vice president of North American Sales at Psion, it was not uncommon for customers in the supply chain business to get seven to nine years of useful life out of a terminal before making a commitment to move to the next generation platform. "By then, they could have skipped one, maybe even two, generational iterations of products within that classification," he states. However, these days, there are a lot of forces that are collapsing and consolidating the long life-cycle customers once got from these investments.
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