Deliveries Tool refers to the functions that are useful to both the delivery person in the field and company performing the deliveries. For the company, these functions would be monitoring the inventory (via barcode reader) in the delivery truck, confirming deliveries (receiver's signature, etc.), and monitoring the location of the delivery truck. For the delivery person, mapping and route description are essential along with communication with headquarters and basic ruggedness. In many ways, these functions together require a custom hardware platform combined with a custom application. With this in mind, the following are suggested:
Openmoko
Openmoko has an open source hardware platform so that a bar code reader can be incorporated in a modified hardware design. Custom applications can be developed using the GNU/Linux tool chain. There is no license fee associated with the Openmoko platform.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is not attached to a specific hardware configuration. A custom hardware platform incorporating a GPS device and barcode reader is straight forward to develop. WinMo probably has the largest driver library of all the platforms. Application development is also straight forward with the Visual Studio environment. Because it is not open source, there is a license fee to Microsoft.
Android
Android is not attached to a specific hardware configuration. It can run on top of custom hardware running Linux. Android has the communication features of a handset and mapping abilities of Google. It also has the support of multiple companies and developers.
