Zebra Technologies is a leading global provider of rugged and reliable specialty printing solutions, including on-demand thermal bar code label and receipt printers and supplies, plastic card printers, RFID smart label printer/encoders, certified smart media, and digital photo printers.

In 2004, the promising EPC Class 1 Generation 2 (Gen2) protocol was under development, and Zebra's goal was to offer upgradeable, multi-protocol RFID label printers, in place of single protocol printers that required new hardware for the adoption of different protocols, new standards, and RFID reader system upgrades.