Janam is a New York-based rugged mobile computing vendor with worldwide distribution. The company was established in 2006 as a provider of purpose-built rugged handheld computing devices for mobile workers. In January 2015, the company introduced the Janam XM5, a rugged mobile computer that fits right into enterprise systems and allows testing OS and potential migration strategies by being able of running either Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 or Android 4.2.
In terms of general positioning, the Janam XM5 offers what might be called the traditional Pocket PC size and shape with a thumbtype keypad at the bottom. The device measures a fairly compact 2.9 x 6.1 inches. It's an inch thick and weighs about 10 ounces. That makes the XM5 thicker and heavier than modern smartphones, but it's still pocketable. Though it doesn't look that way, its footprint is actually about the same as that of the iPhone 6 Plus.
With the new XM5, Janam customers get tried-and-true, mature technology, but all nicely updated and refreshed. A non-specified 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 application processor handles matters under the hood, likely something from Texas Instruments. The 3.5-inch display looks a bit small in relation to the overall size of the device. Its full VGA 480 x 640 pixel resolution, however, makes for a pixel density in the 230 dots per inch range, which is very sharp and crisp. For memory, there's 512MB of RAM and 1GB of Flash, expandable via a microSD card slot. The technology is certainly good enough to run Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 (which is Windows Mobile 6.5 with a new name) or Android 4.2. As the picture above shows, the XM5 can be ordered either with a 27-key numeric keypad for rapid data entry, or with a 46-key full QWERTY thumbtype keyboard. What all that means is that the Janam XM5 uses a design and form factor that's been around for years, but that is still popular enough to be widely deployed and supported.
On the surface, one might wonder why Janam didn't take the leap forward to a rugged device built on state-of-the-art consumer smartphone technology. At some point they probably will, but for now there's a reason to the company's product strategy. As Janam's CEO Harry Lerner explains, "Janam's XM5 is one of the few rugged mobile computers that allows a customer to migrate from Windows to Android without purchasing new hardware," and that's a very good point indeed. While Android by now dominates the consumer smartphone market, its acceptance in industrial handhelds, where Microsoft still holds a strong position with its older Windows Mobile/Embedded Handheld software platform, has been much slower. So offering a rugged, high-quality, attractively priced device that not only covers enterprise requirements but also also allows experimenting with and possibly migrating to Android is an interesting proposition.
The XM5's technology is certainly workable enough: there's dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n while consumer devices usually still just offer single-band WiFi. There's 3G/4G 5-band mobile broadband -- definitely not a given in rugged handhelds. The 5-megapixel autofocus camera with illuminator would be modest in a consumer smartphone, but it's more advanced than what most industrial handhelds have.
And then there's industrial-grade scanning. Instead of using the built-in camera and a scanner app like consumer smartphones do, Janam XM5 customers have a choice of either a Honeywell 1D/2D Adaptus N5600 imager (see N5600 spec page) or a Honeywell N4300 laser scanner (see N4300 spec page). And, also important in many industrial applications, the XM5 can support RS232 serial via a snap-on module. To meet contemporary and future-oriented requirements, the XM5 also has embedded RFID and NFC capabilities.
The Janam XM5 is also far more rugged than any consumer smartphone. It will survive multiple 5-foot drops, can be operated in a very wide -4 to 140 degree temperature range, and is sealed to IP65 level, which means this handheld is totally dustproof and also immune to low-pressure water jets from all directions.
Overall, the Janam XM5 builds a very rational bridge between legacy functionality and current era trends, one that optimizes mobility investments by enabling examination of different OS strategy and potential application migration schedules.
Janam Technologies LLC · janam.com · 1-516-677-9500
