ThingMagic’s Mercury4e Reader to Expand Power of SATO RFID Printers

Charlotte, NC and Cambridge, MA, August 2, 2006  — ThingMagic, Inc. (www.thingmagic.com), a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, today announced a partnership with SATO America, a global leader in barcode printing, labeling and EPC/RFID solutions.

“As RFID deployments roll out worldwide, partnerships are increasingly key to RFID success and wide spread adoption,” said Kevin Ashton, vice president, marketing, for ThingMagic.  “Offering Mercury4e embedded RFID readers, as a SATO America Preferred RFID Partner, is an important first step toward an expanded relationship that will support a wide variety of RFID adopters around the world.”

SATO America has certified the ThingMagic Mercury4e for use in the United States with SATO America’s CL408e/CL412e RFID tabletop printers and M8485Se RFID OEM Print Engine.  SATO Corporation plans call for expansion into Europe and Asia Pacific as well.

“The partnership with ThingMagic strengthens our ability to meet the needs of our diverse customer base, including those in automotive, government, manufacturing and retail,” said Stephen Hull, RFID product manager for SATO America.  “With the incorporation of ThingMagic Mercury4e readers, SATO America will extend its position and reach as a principal innovator to the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry.”

SATO RFID printers can read, write and print “Smart” labels, with visual images, text or barcodes on the label surface, and read/write on the thin transponder embedded in the label.  The ThingMagic Mercury4e is the embedded version of the ThingMagic Mecury4 reader, designed to provide high powered agile RFID capability to the SATO CL408e/CL412e and SATO M8485Se printers.  SATO printers offer high speed data transmission, unparalleled processing speed and large amounts of on-board memory to quickly and easily manage any label printing requirement.  The reader is credit card-sized, supporting two antennas, and can read any tag, including the new EPC Generation 2 as well as older protocols such as ISO 18000-6B, EPC Class 0, re-writeable EPC Class 0 and EPC Class 1.

The SATO printers incorporating the ThingMagic Mercury4e reader are immediately available from SATO America through any of its authorized resellers or distributors.

About SATO
SATO is a pioneer in the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry and the inventor of the world’s first electronic thermal transfer barcode printer. It revolutionized the barcoding industry by introducing the Data Collection Systems (DCS) & Labeling concept – a total barcode and labeling solution providing high quality barcode printers, scanners/hand held terminals, label design software and consumables. SATO is one of the first in the industry to introduce a complete, multi-protocol EPC-compliant, UHF RFID solution.

SATO is publicly listed on the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan. It has worldwide offices in the United States, Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, it reported revenues of US$575 million. For more information, contact SATO America at www.satoamerica.com.