Enterprises that specialise in B2B services often maintain a guarded demeanour. This is particularly true of MNCs, which would rather script their growth story quietly. But if they decide to lower their guard (occasionally, of course), you might come across surprising elements about them. Nasdaq-enlisted and US-headquartered Zebra Technologies perfectly fits in this bucket. The market perception in India about this over $5 billion annual revenue firm is simple: it is a firm that specialises in hand-held scanners and barcoding solutions and is particularly aligned with retail and logistics operations. But the firm that has over three decades of presence in India is definitely much more than just being a hardware tool-seller. Internationally, it has significantly grown in size both organically and inorganically. The acquisition of Motorola Solutions in 2014 at a reported sum of over $3 billion delivered a major shot in the arm to the company.
Its expanding global profile has also meant adding software strength to its hardware mainstay. And, much of this is now reflected in its Indian operations, which the top brass strongly emphasises, has moved to a higher gear. If we typically look at its Indian growth story, then it is no longer just restricted to retail or logistics. Today, it has more verticals and is exploring opportunities in new ones. Plus, the company is also aligning with government contracts – both with infrastructure projects as well as administrative deliverables, where the automated quotient has to be taken to a new level. Zebra’s India story also has a formidable element in its R&D centre – it is the second-largest in the world. “India today appears in our top 10 market list, and we expect it to break into the top five list in the coming years,” says Ryan Goh, senior vice-president, APAC, Zebra Technologies. Before joining Zebra in 2006, Goh had worked for Motorola Solutions for six years, contributing to building its business in Asia.
Zebra’s DNA
Focusing on product creation with increased spending in its R&D is a core strategic pillar of Zebra Technologies. It certainly does not believe in doing everything on its own but has developed a robust network of channel partners, who help it to reach out to more customers across various sectors in different markets. According to its annual filing for 2025, the company is pumping back 11 per cent of its total revenue into developing new products and solutions and has filed over 7,000 patents to date. “I think we invest more than most other companies,” Goh underlines. “Our commitment to R&D is a major competitive differentiator and allows us to consistently lead the market in innovation”.
Here’s a quick look at how Zebra has evolved globally. Founded as Data Specialities in the US in 1969, the company took 10 years to create a manufacturing base to churn out products, which became its drivers in subsequent years. It commenced its device manufacturing journey with the first hand-held barcode scanner in 1979, which was followed by the first barcode printer and first thermal printer for labelling by 1986. The company’s name was also changed to Zebra Technologies around the mid-1980s. (see Journey chart). Its growth journey clearly underlines that it has consistently added to its product portfolio, which has aligned with a general boom witnessed in the global market in the spheres of manufacturing, retail and logistics – the key verticals for the company. Its laser two-D barcode product, wearable computer, rugged RFID handheld, etc, had only endeared the company to a growing tribe of clients across the world, who were looking for ease in operation tools via automation.
The acquisition of Motorola Enterprise Solutions (at $3.45 billion) has been a key milestone in company’sS history, as it added wings to its aspirations to develop a complete portfolio. To bring in more software strength, it later made other notable acquisitions too. “While Zebra has always utilised software to support its printing and scanning hardware, our strategic transformation into an enterprise software leader accelerated with the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business in 2014,” informs Subramaniam Thiruppathi, country lead, India sub-continent (ISC), Zebra Technologies. “This pivot expanded significantly through a series of ‘software first’ acquisitions aimed at AI and workforce optimisation, including Reflexis Systems (2020) and Antuit.ai (2021)”. In 2025, the company further strengthened this portfolio with investments in advanced machine vision through companies like Photoneo to consolidate its position as a provider of AI-driven, end-to-end solutions.
While the hardware components remain the main scoring segment of its report card, one-fifth of its revenue was contributed by software and services domains. And, based on these strengths, Goh underlines that the company has consolidated its business among the clients of some of the fastest-growing businesses in the world. “I think, globally, retail is the largest for us and manufacturing and transport logistics,” he informs. “In APAC, manufacturing is the largest. Naturally, so because all the manufacturing is happening all around us – China, Vietnam and India now”.
The company today has quite a diversified portfolio comprising products and solutions across more than half a dozen categories – mobile computing and rugged tablets, barcode scanners and imagers, speciality printing and supplies, RFID readers and real-time location systems (RTLS), WorkCloud Workforce Optimisation and Enterprise Collaboration Solutions, Machine Vision and also robotics automation solutions. “We are more like a multi-speciality hospital, offering advanced solutions, right from the procurement of the raw materials to its final dispatch, to the end user, and we aim to make the operations more efficient,” emphasises Aik Jin Tan, manufacturing marketing leader, APAC, Zebra Technologies. With R&D being at the fulcrum of its operations (with a spending of $563 million in 2024), for other critical legs of its operations (manufacturing, sales and distribution), it has created a formidable ecosystem of partners across the planet. It has over 10,000 channel partners (for sales and distribution) and over 100 facilities managed by contract manufacturing partners and supported by a workforce of 9,900 employees. “You know that we work on a JDM model,” says Goh. “So, we don’t own manufacturing plants, we partner through joint development manufacturing (JDM)” – a collaborative partnership, where a brand and a manufacturer jointly design, engineer, and make products, combining external technical expertise with internal product requirements. It is particularly popular in electronic device manufacturing all over the world, and units attached with Zebra are primarily located in China and Vietnam in the APAC region. It does not have a similar contract with any manufacturer in India right now.
Fingers in many pies
And now, here’s a look at Zebra’s run in India. Quite interestingly, Zebra had arrived in India in 1991, the same year when India had changed its economic direction by initiating reforms. And for a long time, there was this perception of the company that it was primarily aligned with logistics and retail. “In the initial years, Zebra was working with kirana stores and small supermarkets, taking care of their small automation needs. By the end of the 1990s, Zebra had recruited its first full-fledged team to serve the Indian market,” recalls Thiruppathi, who had joined in 2005. According to him, the emergence of domestic retail chains, the expansion of their footprint nationally, and their growing realisation of adopting a more efficient and agile supply chain systems had put a host of hardware companies (with barcode scanners and other handheld devices offerings) on the path of prominence. Their products had particularly gained the attention of logistics service providers (LSPs) to make their warehouses smarter and more efficient as their sizes began to grow. This has been a trend noticed for the last over two decades, and it continues unabated. “Earlier, most of our warehouses and consignment activities depended heavily on manual entries, paperwork and physical verification, which often led to delays, mismatches and operational gaps,” affirms Akash Bansal, director, operations, Om Logistics, a leading LSP in the country. “With handheld scanning devices becoming more common across logistics operations, companies have been able to improve consignment visibility, inventory accuracy and turnaround time, to a large extent. From warehouse inwarding and sorting to dispatch and proof of delivery, scanning has helped teams work faster with fewer chances of manual error.” The explosion of e-commerce businesses since 2010 gave a tremendous boost to the sales of hand-held devices and, on the branded side, companies like Zebra, Welspun, Honeywell, Datalogic, CipherLab, TVS Electronics and others have been the direct beneficiaries.
The last 15 years have seen the gradual addition of more sectors in Zebra’s alignment portfolio. Basic supply chain to evolving retail and manufacturing, and larger infrastructure pieces (like ports and airports) also opened up new business opportunities for it. “We are heavily involved with several of the largest port operators globally, as well as major government-owned ports in India, to help modernise their infrastructure,” Thiruppathi adds. He also claims that the company has been involved with several national identity and citizen service programmes by way of the adoption of its barcodes, though he refuses to share the details.
Thiruppathi, however, cites an important project in Zebra’s growth in India. During the early part of the last decade, Zebra had helped a major telecom firm to automate its customer application form (CAF) by way of putting a barcode which seamlessly garnered all the data of the customer. It was a large-scale project, which had added to the reputation of the company to provide solutions for large-scale public or consumer-oriented programmes. According to Thiruppathi, the company has also contributed to the projects that have shaped digital infrastructure in the country. “Around 2014, we got an opportunity to work with an initiative to figure out how we can actually automate corridors,” he explains. “We did an interesting project with a major industrial corridor by actually putting up toll-gate automation for the containers to move. The clients wanted container tracking, so we brought in technology and partnered with leading infrastructure companies. This successful implementation showcased how similar technology could be scaled for broader public use, such as national electronic toll collection,” he explains, adding that on the hardware side, Zebra is offering a full stack to Indian customers ranging from rugged mobile computers and tablets (like the TC and ET series), handheld and fixed data capture scanners, industrial thermal printers, and advanced RFID solutions.
With cutting-edge software abilities (with AI quotient becoming more prominent), Zebra has moved in the direction of micro-assistance of its customers. For instance, it can today also help retail companies with information pertaining to better sales propositions of its products at different locations in its chain. “There is a technology curve we are seeing, and I think that is where Zebra is helping its customers to implement frontline AI. We are enabling what we call intelligent operation in manufacturing, giving real-time visibility with RFID, and with machine vision,” Goh explains.
The company today also seems to be drawing strength from a stable base of committed channel partners – some of them, who were there for more than two decades, are able to vouch for having grown their enterprises with Zebra offerings playing a role. “We have been working with Zebra since 2002,” says S.R. Srinivasan, CEO, QodeNext India, which provides solutions to manufacturing units. “Initially, it was a printer company; then it acquired Motorola Solutions Enterprise Business in 2014. From there, Zebra has grown beyond scanning and mobility. It has gone into machine RFID, tabs, and now it is talking about connected factories, workforce automation and all that. The company has entered the solutions area also. So, it has gone beyond hardware, which is benefiting us.” Adds Rajeshwar Bhatt, CEO & MD, Kemar Automation, which is involved in providing solutions to port and mining companies: “Our major focus is on traceability. We utilise Zebra’s advanced technologies like RFID and AI-enabled equipment and integrate that with our applications, and that solution is given to the customers.”
Though the company does not divulge its financial numbers (from Indian operations), it claims to be partnering with top-notch manufacturers, retail, e-commerce and OEMs today. It is also enhancing its engagement with government departments with new solutions. For instance, it has recently initiated Yatharth – a crime investigation platform designed to streamline evidence collection, management and reporting for law enforcement agencies. For this project, it is partnering with the Rajasthan and Maharashtra Police. Additionally, it is also partnering with Indian Railways for the deployment of Kavach, the train collision avoidance system, as well as supporting electronic toll collection initiatives through its scanning and automation technologies.
Next frontier
The company’s top brass asserts that the presence of its second-largest R&D centre in Bengaluru (one more unit has been unveiled in Pune) comes as an added benefit to its growth plans in the country as well as in other geographies. The R&D centre spans about 250,000 sq ft and houses 1,200 employees. Here, it is developing software solutions through the acquisition of Antuit.ai, which specialises in demand forecasting, inventory planning and price optimisation.
While enhancing its presence in the government-backed projects in the digital infrastructure domain will be a major priority for the coming in the medium run, it has recently also expressed its intention to make major moves in another domain – MSMEs. The company strongly believes that, with 97 per cent of the 70 million MSMEs just beginning their digital modernisation journeys, the domain presents a huge scope. “We are doubling down on our partner-led approach in India,” Thiruppathi contends. “By providing plug-and-play solutions that build a connected frontline, deliver real-time visibility and drive intelligent automation, we are helping MSMEs evolve into truly connected, intelligent enterprises capable of scaling upwards efficiently whenever the need arises”. For this initiative, the company has embarked upon strengthening its PartnerConnect Programme (500 channel partners in India). Stakeholders endorse the theory that MSMEs present a big-ticket opportunity for companies on the automation side. “Indian MSMEs are steadily transitioning toward technology-driven business models. Digital and software automation is becoming essential for competitiveness, while AI and affordable hardware automation will define the next phase of MSME growth and productivity,” says Vinod Kumar, President, India SME Forum. The forum had recently organised a nationwide survey on technology adoption among Indian MSMEs, covering over 18,900 manufacturing enterprises and 26,820 service-sector SMEs across India.
The survey had revealed a clear acceleration in the adoption of digital tools, software automation and AI-enabled solutions among MSMEs, driven by increasing competition, compliance requirements, digital commerce growth and the need for higher productivity. Software-led automation has seen significantly higher adoption than hardware automation, the survey shows, due to lower costs and easier accessibility through cloud-based platforms.
Meanwhile, the market is abuzz with the theory that, in the basic hand-held devices segment, a touch point for most of the smaller enterprises when they opt for automation, the branded suppliers are facing difficult times with the increasing import of cheaper devices from China. Point it out to Thiruppathi, and he asserts that it is not really a matter of concern. “The Indian market is highly competitive and diverse, and we recognise that there is always a place for entry-level hardware in certain applications,” he explains. “However, at Zebra, our focus is less on the ‘entry price’ and more on the ‘Business Continuity’ of our customers. In mission-critical sectors like healthcare or high-volume logistics, even an hour of downtime due to a device failure can be incredibly costly. We see our customers moving toward a more mature understanding of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). We respect all players in the market, but we believe our commitment to the full lifecycle of the product, from security patches to local service centres, is the reason India’s leading enterprises continue to trust us with their strategic operations”. And while indicating some of the key solutions it may introduce in the near-to-medium run (R&D is underway), he adds that these include making payment at petrol pumps through RFID tags, and there could be some interesting solutions in the food retail (colour labelling) and jewellery segments.