Ericsson, Motorola, and Symbol Technologies, normally fierce competitors,
joined hands to provide start-up AirClic with $290 million to further develop
its a wireless barcode scanner and help market the devices that allow wireless
devices to scan bar codes and transmit that data to online databases on the
Internet.
AirClic also plans to make its technology available to consumers, but will
first target small businesses, which will be able to use the devices to order
supplies faster. "In basic terms, we're like a large switch that'll route
millions of requests every day for information driven off of scans," said
John Constantine, AirClic's vice president for marketing.