WC has spotted one of the promised industry bundlings of the HP Elite x3 with peripherals for 'vertical' use, in this case a tough case for the x3 with an integrated barcode scanner. The setup can be seen in HP's "Mobile Solutions" site for retail customers, under the 6-inch Mobile Solution category. Interestingly, the scanner seems to connect via NFC and Bluetooth and not via the x3's pogo pins. This might be partly because the scanner is naturally needed at the top of the device, and partly because scanning is extremely low bandwidth, only needing to pass a few characters back to an application on the smartphone.

HP's description is:

Enable optimal customer experiences, associate productivity, and manager agility with the HP Elite x3 Mobile Retail Solution, a Windows® handheld and barcode scanner that switches to a full PC.

Future x3 attachments will no doubt take advantage of the pogo pins too - the x3 is set for a few years of use in vertical applications and HP continues to push it, even if the device is in danger of falling behind the cutting edge in the consumer/enthusiast space.