Local company BAK USA will be building a corporate computer tablet in Buffalo while using its new marketing affiliation with Microsoft.
The computer manufacturer showed off the connection with a news conference Wednesday in the Microsoft store in the Walden Galleria.
Co-Founder J.P. Bak says the company will be showing off the computer, called Seal 8, in about a month.
"It's a little bit more complicated device of the three devices we are offering. But, it is still the same functionality, it's just a faster processor," Bak explained.
"We have actually fingerprint scanners. We have real bar code scanners built into the device we are selling to the construction business."
Bak says the company will continue to expand its manufacturing operations here as well as its employment numbers so the new machine will continue to announce "Made in Buffalo," showing American workers can compete in a world market for high-tech.
Erie County Executive Poloncarz says the move is a sign that U.S. manufacturing can compete and sell American-made devices.
"I'm a proud owner of a BAK tablet. But, people across the country and, truthfully, people across the world, will now be seeing that tablet that has on the back of it, "Assembled in Buffalo, New York." Tthat will tell a lot of people, hey, if they can succeed in Buffalo as a manufacturing company in a high-tech industry, I can succeed in Buffalo in a high-tech industry as a manufacturer in the United States," Poloncarz said.
J.P. Bak says the company was doing fine in its niche market but needed that Microsoft license to move into the corporate world and beyond its Android operating system. He says the new tablets have built-in and optional features for business applications.
Bak says the company will be showing off the new machines in about a month.
