Tablet Pioneer Xplore Technologies’ Holleran Sees Industry Shift with iPad Success

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Analysts are calling it “The Year of the Tablet” at this Thursday’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, Xplore Technologies Corp. (OTCBB: XLRT), a leader in rugged tablet PCs for commercial applications, was among the companies that helped pioneer early tablet PCs more than a decade ago.

“We began our company selling tablet PCs to police departments and first responders who were afraid of computers,” says Mark Holleran, President of Xplore Technologies. “Now, here we are, more than a decade later, and tablet PCs have taken off. But Xplore was there at the beginning and it is an amazing industry-wide transformation that has now taken place.”

Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, companies like Xplore developed the first incarnation of the pen tablet – PCs resembling bulky etch-a-sketches – for workers in warehousing, transportation, utilities, and first responders in police, fire, and EMTs. Xplore Technologies was one of the first to incorporate dual mode inputs with pen and touch capabilities (the original ones used a stylus) and worked with Microsoft when Bill Gates, in 2002, introduced his Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Today, Holleran sees the success of Apple’s iPad in the consumer markets as an indication that the tablet PC industry is poised for wider even acceptance and accelerated growth.

“With the explosion in video and mobile apps available, consumers and businesses require more interactive capabilities than a keyboard can deliver,” said Holleran. “The iPad’s success has signaled an industry shift that will continue to expand in the years to come.”

Holleran sees this shift as a positive harbinger for Xplore Technologies in the commercial sector. Xplore is preparing to launch its fifth generation tablet PC and has sold around a hundred thousand of its iX104 units since the company began. Xplore Technologies launched its iX104C4M rugged tablet PC to meet stringent battlefield requirements for military vehicles and its Clean Room iX104C4 PC for pharmaceutical and food industries in 2010. The company pioneered outdoor readable displays and wLAN wireless solutions.

Mr. Holleran is available for comment on the evolution of the tablet PC and the industry shift to tablet PC from keyboard-based computing.

For comment or to schedule an interview, please contact Laura Grock at (312) 943-1106 or lgrock@janispr.com.

ABOUT XPLORE TECHNOLOGIES

Xplore Technologies Corp. (http://www.xploretech.com/) is engaged in the business of developing, integrating and marketing rugged mobile wireless PC computing systems. The Company's products enable the extension of traditional computing systems to a range of field and on-site personnel, regardless of location or environment. Using a range of wireless communication mediums together with the Company's rugged computing products, the Company's end-users are able to receive, collect, analyze, manipulate and transmit information in a variety of environments not suited to traditional non-rugged computing devices. The Company's end-users are in markets that include utility, warehousing/logistics, public safety, field service, transportation, manufacturing, route delivery, military and homeland security.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. When used in this document, the words “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Xplore’s current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made including those factors detailed from time to time in filings made by Xplore with securities regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated or expected. Xplore does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

Xplore: For Media or U.S. Investor Information Contact:
Martin E. Janis & Company, Inc.
Beverly Jedynak, 312-943-1123, bjedynak@janispr.com or
Laura Grock, 312-943-1106, lgrock@janispr.com

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