Periodically, we ask industry leaders in the rugged computing and communications market questions about their products, their views, and their opinions on trends, emerging technologies and a variety of other issues.
RuggedPCReview: The Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the world and world economy over the past year and a half. How has Getac weathered it, and are things slowly returning to normal?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Undoubtedly, the chip shortage has had an impact. Even under difficult circumstances, Getac has maintained swift shipment lead times, which are better than the industry average. It can also be seen that Getac's product innovation and resilience that we've provided to our customers have gained us market prominence. Our long-term commitment to them, and a planning-ahead mindset, have enabled. Customers can count on receiving the tailor-made solutions they need from Getac, which has brought us new business opportunities and kept our performance strong.
RuggedPCReview: Apart from the human factor, Covid-19 has brought, and is bringing, supply chain problems and component shortages. How have these issues affected Getac?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Simply stated, the chip shortage creates increased component costs. Getac spent much effort and resources making our offerings flexible, while still delivering quality devices, on time. We work closely with our supply chain partners and monitor key material inventories to meet demands. We've continuously communicated with our customers, understanding the challenges they've faced, and solving them with our solutions. Our strong R&D and product management teams have kept us flexible enough to handle ever-changing situations when designing our products. In addition, our services quickly adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our business keeps normal thanks to those collaborations together.
RuggedPCReview: Despite Covid-19 Getac has launched more new and updated products over the past couple of years than ever. How did that come about?
Rick Hwang, Getac: As a technology-leading solution provider, we continually develop more products with new technologies for our customers to improve job efficiencies. Our strength in R&D enables us to introduce products adopting the latest technologies in a timely fashion. These advances happen to be pioneering in relation to others in the rugged industry.
RuggedPCReview: Last year you told RuggedPCReview that the rugged computing industry is moving from a product to a solutions focus. Is this still the case, and if so, has Getac's focus changed as well?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Vertical industry sector-specific solutions continue to be at the forefront. We are always observing what our customers' needs are. We translate these needs into a total solution package to resolve their pain points and improve their daily work efficiency. This is why Getac continues to provide a state-of-the-art product portfolio with various solutions including hardware, software, accessories, and services for a complete solution offering for each industry.
An example is U.S. Law Enforcement data collection, records management, and reporting software compliance. This includes collaboration with barcode component vendors to enable driver license scanning with parsing and thereby populating the data acquired into pre-defined fields automatically for established software used by numerous police departments across multiple states in the U.S.
RuggedPCReview: We've been hearing a lot about Getac Select. Can you outline the program and how it benefits customers?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Getac Select is a concept inspired by our customers and the challenges that they face. It is based on extensive customer feedback, industry experience and know-how that we have acquired over the years to create innovative user solutions right out of the box. The result is a combination of rugged computing devices, software, accessories, and professional services that are tailor-made for each industry. All the individual solution offerings have been validated to ensure seamless compatibility providing peace of mind when they are deployed in the field.
An example is the wildlife conservation commissions. This conservation commission encountered a challenge in managing their devices in the field requiring a way to monitor and track the cellular usage rate for each device. By offering Getac's GDMS software solution, they are now able to keep track of the cellular usage rate down to device level and monitor each device's health status in real-time to avoid any unexpected downtime due to device failure.
RuggedPCReview: On the technology side, it appears that Intel's "Tiger Lake" 11th generation of Core processors is being universally adopted by all major rugged systems manufacturers. What made "Tiger Lake" so attractive?
Rick Hwang, Getac: It's important to note that Getac was one of the first rugged computer vendors to employ Tiger Lake processors. Tiger Lake processors have better performance, while the I/O supports Thunderbolt 4. Additionally, these processors are more efficient and provide enhanced graphics and most importantly, better battery life for improved run time. For industries that especially need efficient workday experiences, Tiger Lake-based devices are ideal choices. Getac products launched in 2021 all featured this processor, ranging from 11 to 14-inch laptops and tablets. We believe those can cover a wide range of industrial applications for customers.
RuggedPCReview: Another technology issue that suddenly seems to take center stage is Thunderbolt 4. All of your new product releases include TB4. What do you see as the benefits of TB4 for your customers?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Based on the high speed/wide bandwidth input/output, users may have higher resolution display output (supports two 4K resolution or one 8K resolution) simultaneously as well as an external graphics accelerator as an input to optimize the system performance. This is what end users are eager for. Users can also experience the convenience of TB4's high-speed connectivity and charging capability. Industries like manufacturing, and automotive can be benefited from those new capabilities, whether in the warehouse or shop floors.
RuggedPCReview: Getac was an early adopter of Android in some of its products, but all recent products and releases have been on the Windows side. Given that Android dominates the smartphone and, to a lesser extent, the consumer tablet market, and also presents migration opportunity for the Windows CE/Mobile legacy market, what is your position on Android now?
Rick Hwang, Getac: Getac develops products to address industry pain points and meet customer demands. With unit costs and BYOD trends making Android an increasingly attractive option for some of our customers, Getac has recently added the ZX10 fully-rugged Android alongside our numerous Windows models. We've also recently launched our OEMConfig application, enabling our customers to configure and update all of their Getac Android devices simultaneously from a single central location. With this expansion of our Android lineup, and diversification of our tablet capabilities as a whole, Getac can continue to provide the rugged solutions that best suit our customers, whether that's through the computing power of Windows, or the custom flexibility of Android.
RuggedPCReview: The differentiation between "semi-rugged" and "fully rugged" tablets and laptops appears to be shrinking. The two classes are closer in size, weight, design, performance and features than ever. Some customers seem confused. How do you define those two classes?
Rick Hwang, Getac: There are still significant differences between semi-rugged and fully rugged. For example, Getac's fully rugged devices have an Ingress Procedure rating of IP66 whereas our S410 semi-rugged notebook's IP rating is certified at IP 53. IP53 means it is protected from limited dust ingress and from water spray less than 60 degrees from vertical. IP66 mean it is water resistant against powerful jets. Though both products have a MIL-STD ratings of 810H the B360 is drop tested for 6 feet whereas the S410 is drop tested for 3 feet. Pricing is the key difference. Semi-rugged devices have relatively lower prices.
Rick Hwang is President of Getac Technology Corporation. He held prior executive and management positions at Intel, Gemtek Technologies, and Intrinsic Software Corporations. Mr. Hwang holds an MBA degree in International Marketing from Baruch College.
