Ask the Expert: What Does It Mean When a Technology Company Uses the Term “Edge”?

Zebra alone applies the word “edge” in six different ways when talking about technology’s impact, beyond the traditional context of “edge computing."

Zebra`s VP of Portfolio Marketing, Rob Armstrong

by Rob Armstrong

June 10, 2020

When we launched the “Ask the Expert” blog series last year here on Your Edge, one of our primary goals was to breakdown the business and technology buzzwords that elude many people – sometimes, even those of us who use them in our daily vernacular. So far, we’ve covered everything from blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things and NITs.

Today, we are taking a close look at the meaning of the term “edge.” After all, we use this term frequently as part of our tagline: “Capture Your Edge,” and we focus on the importance of gathering and leveraging data and intelligence at the “edge of the enterprise.”

At first, many people assumed we were talking about the ways in which Zebra helps customers gain a competitive advantage…which we were. But as our solution portfolio started expanding and we started talking about new ways in which customers could use data capture technologies at the edge of the enterprise in combination with IoT engines to generate more actionable intelligence, some started to ask if we were talking about edge computing.

The use of the term “edge” is further compounded when we talk about how organizations can use technology to gain an “operational edge,” “intelligence edge” and “performance edge.”

I recently sat down with Zebra’s Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Schmitz, to get his insights into the various uses of the term “edge” including the meaning behind our “Capture Your Edge” tagline.

Listen to the podcast now:

The Meaning of "Edge"

Don’t have time to listen to the full podcast episode? Watch this short clip of the conversation now for a quick breakdown of Zebra’s four definitions of “the edge”:

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Rob Armstrong

Robert (Rob) Armstrong became Chief Marketing Officer, Zebra Technologies in March 2023. Rob has nearly 20 years of experience in the B2B technology sector and joined Zebra in 2014. Throughout his career, he has held various go-to-market leadership roles, most recently serving as Zebra’s Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing & Channels. In this role, Rob oversaw go-to-market strategy and downstream marketing execution for the full Zebra portfolio, inclusive of customer segment, product, and digital marketing; channel and brand strategies; media relations; pricing; and analytics. During this time, he led a diverse, high-performing team of marketing and channel professionals to drive preference globally and evolve the perception of the Zebra brand in over 100 countries in collaboration with more than 10,000 partners in Zebra’s growing channel ecosystem.