GE Smart Appliances Integrate Symbol Technologies Consumer Scanners, Computing Appliances At Kitchen & Bath Trade Show

Business Wire, April 7, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2000

Symbol Technologies (NYSE:SBL) today announced that its scanning and mobile computing appliances are an integral part of the GE Smart Appliance concept, allowing consumers to build a shopping list and order on-line, and are being demonstrated at the Kitchen & Bath 2000 trade show.

The Symbol CS 2000 consumer scanner and SPT1500 handheld computer -- each an easy to use, mobile, pocketable device, linked through the GE smart appliance network, allows consumers a fast, friendly and fun way to develop their shopping list and to order on-line. Consumers simply scan the UPC bar code located on the product, right out of the refrigerator or in the pantry. For fresh foods, there is a menu list located on the door of the refrigerator.

Once a consumer has completed building a shopping list, the scanner is placed into a cradle attached to a home computer's serial port. The data is then sent to an on-line service, a supermarket that has home delivery service or a web page that develops a grocery list with coupons and nutritional information.

"By using "smart appliances," consumers can build an electronic shopping list and order on-line," said Bob Sanders, vice president e-commerce marketing. Symbol Technologies. "The devices capture product information right at the point of activity - the refrigerator or pantry - and simplify home shopping."

About Symbol

Symbol Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in mobile data transaction systems, providing innovative customer solutions based on wireless local area networking for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture. Symbol's wireless information appliances connect the physical world of people on the move to information systems and the Internet. Today, some 10 million Symbol bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in markets ranging from retailing to transportation and distribution logistics, manufacturing, parcel and postal delivery, government, healthcare and education. Symbol's systems and products are used to increase productivity from the factory floor to the retail store, to the enterprise and out to the home. Information about Symbol is available at www.symbol.com and 1-800-722-6234.