ATLANTA, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- NCR Corporation continues its market leadership in stationary bar code scanners for retail point-of-sale (POS) applications, according to the latest data from market research firm Venture Development Corporation (VDC). The VDC report shows NCR leading its competitors with a 31 percent global share of 1999 shipments, an increase over NCR's 28 percent share of 1998 shipments.
NCR installed the first bar code scanner in a retail store in 1974 and has since shipped more than a million stationary scanners to supermarkets, drug stores, mass merchandise stores, and specialty stores throughout the world.
Innovations introduced by NCR have significantly improved the performance of bar code scanners over the years. For example, NCR's award-winning bi- optic technology scans multiple sides of a product and is the industry leader in reading bar codes on the first pass. The NCR 7872, introduced earlier this year, is one of the world's thinnest bi-optic scanners and is designed especially for stores in Europe and other markets where size and performance are key criteria.
"Today the technology is so easy to use that shoppers can scan merchandise, coupons and other bar-coded items themselves," said Tracy Flynn, vice president, Product and Solution Marketing, for NCR's Retail Solutions Group. "This is helping drive consumer acceptance of self-service systems. We've seen significant growth in sales of NCR Self-Checkout systems, which use our high performance bi-optic scanner/scale, and in sales of NCR Web Kiosks, which are available with NCR scanners."
Bar code scanners also enable retailers to collect detailed data regarding products that consumers purchase. Increasingly, successful retailers use this information in data warehousing applications to fine-tune store assortments and help assure that consumers find the products they want on the shelves when they shop.
The NCR family of bar code scanners encompasses models and sizes with options to fit virtually any store automation requirement. NCR was the first to combine scanner and scale, the first to introduce software that reads misprinted or poor quality bar codes, and the first to address ergonomics in scanner design.
About Venture Development Corporation
Founded in 1971, VDC is a premier provider of market research reports and custom market research services to leading technology companies worldwide. VDC has executed over 400 successful consulting engagements and published more than 500 market studies to date. Headquartered in Natick, Mass., VDC's core asset is its staff of over 20 professionals, who bring significant technical expertise, a deep knowledge of market analysis, and industry experience to the company's research and consulting assignments. To learn more about VDC, visit the firm's World Wide Web site at www.vdc-corp.com .
About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a US$6.2 billion leader in providing Relationship Technology(TM) solutions to customers worldwide in the retail, financial, communications, travel and transportation, and insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include privacy-enabled Teradata(R) warehouses and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, store automation and automated teller machines (ATMs). The company's business solutions are built on the foundation of its long-established industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a complete line of consumable and media products, and leading edge hardware technology. NCR employs 32,500 in 130 countries, and is a component stock of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. More information about NCR and its solutions may be found at www.ncr.com .
NCR and Teradata are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries. SOURCE NCR Corporation
CONTACT: Robert "Kelly" Kramer of NCR Corporation, 770-623-7215, or kelly.kramer@ncr.com/
