Philips Unveils Revolutionary New Home Shopping Device

Innovative Handheld Display Scanning Unit Could Change Grocery Shopping Forever Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Philips Components, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, today unveiled the HSD4000 Home Shopping device, a kitchen-based appliance for a digital and more productive shopping experience. With this device Philips illustrates how it can leverage its leadership in displays and consumer understanding to develop technologies and applications that deliver end-user convenience and enhance limited available time.

The HSD4000 allows consumers to compile a digital shopping list of grocery items by simply scanning the bar codes of the items directly from the refrigerator or kitchen cupboards, then easily download the list to a local retailer for pickup or home delivery. The download occurs by connecting the device to the Internet or docking the device at the local retailer. The technology allows time-starved consumers to dramatically reduce the time devoted to the shopping process.

"This e-pliance has the potential to change the entire grocery shopping experience for the consumer," commented Wim Lemay, Business Development manager at Philips Components. "It is ideal whether the consumer wants to shop via the Internet or if they prefer to go to the store themselves. The user also has the option of adding items to their list within the stores with a simple scan, so they are still free to browse the aisles, without having to fill a cart. Philips is ready to supply grocery chains with this innovative product, and we are already in discussions with a number of retail chains -- our research has shown that consumers will adopt this application and we want to get it to them through the retailers as soon as possible."

This product is Philips' first in a planned full line of home convenience display products (or e-pliances), created by its Remote Control Systems business line. The products will be aimed at relieving the consumer of time-consuming activities through the delivery of personal and customized information via display-based devices, enabling more leisure time.

The HSD4000 was created with ease-of-use as a guiding principle -- the user requires no technological know-how. Key features of the ergonomically designed device include a touch-screen display, an intuitive graphical user interface, a bar code scanner, and a docking station for charging the battery pack. The result is a portable light device, close at hand, and easy to use.

The device combines Philips' expertise in displays, remote control units, and consumer understanding, with Symbol Technologies' SE 800 Scan Engine, the latest technology in bar code scanning. The Symbol scan engine is embedded into the HSD4000.

"The Symbol SE 800 Scan Engine is ideal for this application," said Michel Jacobeus, Vice-President, Consumer Business Development Symbol Technologies Inc. "Its miniature size results in easy OEM integration and its scanning performances allow consumers to comfortably read the bar codes typically found in a Home Shopping environment."

Philips is already established as a leading developer of wireless device solutions, including its Net Display Module, the industry's only system-board-integrated, touch-screen LCD module and the world's thinnest and lightest architecture for streaming video, wireless display-centric Internet appliance products.

About Symbol
Symbol Technologies, Inc., winner of the US National Medal of Technology, 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, packages, paper and shipping pallets, 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

Philips Components, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is a world-leading provider of integrated digital electronic solutions in the areas of displays, storage, connectivity and imaging and sensing. Its global customer base covers the consumer electronics, telecommunications and automotive industries, amongst others. Philips Components had annual revenues of over EUR 6.3 billion for the year 2000, and employs more than 40,000 people in 39 countries around the world. More information about Philips Components is available at www.components.philips.com

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 37.9 billion in 2000. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 192,000 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com

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SOURCE Philips Components