Thanks to Pocket PC Thoughts for pointing us at this article. It seems that Kone - lift and escalator manufacturer extraordinaire - is set to rollout 11,000 XDA and XDA II Pocket PC Phones worldwide - covering just their technicians - with further plans to extend these to the sales force.

"Kone has begun rolling out the devices to more than 400 technicians in the UK and expects to have completed a global roll-out in two years.

The Helsinki-based firm has 25,000 staff worldwide and its UK customers include Heathrow Airport, hospitals and shopping centres. It installs 5,000 elevators a year and services 500,000 pieces of equipment, said Jim Haugsland, Kone's manager for global field mobility.

The initial deployment of Microsoft XDA and XDA II Pocket PC phones will be to 11,000 technicians, with plans to extend the roll-out to the sales force later.

The devices, which use pen input, allow technicians to receive general and emergency work orders and file details of completed jobs. "This was all previously done by voice over the mobile phone and on thousands of bits of paper. We are virtually eliminating paper," said Haugsland."

One can only imagine that they get a massive bulk-purchase discount. It's exciting news, and perhaps it might mean that retail prices will come down as a direct result; although I doubt it.

Source: ComputerWeekly.com