Hot on the heels of a blowout quarterly earnings report, Zebra Technologies Corp. announced the opening of an app store for its line of industrial mobile devices and bulked up its Android line with a high-end device featuring multi-carrier 4G LTE capabilities, extra-long battery life and the ability to withstand harsh drops and water immersion.

The B2B company, which makes devices like scanners, RFID readers, printers and mobile computers for use in punishing industrial environments, also rolled out several new mobile apps that adapt common smart phone functions like swiping and keyboarding to the unique challenges of the factory floor.

This Zebra MC67 reportedly fell from a moving vehicle at 35 mph and was run over six times.

Zebra acquired the device side of Motorola Solutions Inc. – a company three times its size – last fall and does not appear to have missed a beat. Its stock is up more than 50% since the deal closed in October and it soared this week when Zebra beat analyst earnings-per-share expectations by 25%. The company’s industrial customers make up only about 2% of the overall smart phone market, but the products carry high price points and margins, as well as significant aftermarket sales in software and management tools.

The industrial computing market has been dominated by Microsoft products until recently, said Mike Petersen, director of product marketing for mobile computers for Zebra Enterprise, but that’s changing. “We believe Android is the right solution for most of our customers,” Petersen said, adding that the company will continue to develop for the Windows platform. As a closed environment, iPhones are off the table.

The new devices and software apps feature capabilities a shop floor manager would love. The TC75 Enterprise Mobile Computer’s screen is designed for use by heavily gloved fingers and its Corning Gorilla Glass screen can survive multiple drops on solid concrete from a height of eight feet. Zebra said the device can survive immersion in a meter of water for over an hour.

Battery life on the unit is about four times that of a standard smart phone and the speaker volume tops out at 107 decibels to cut through factory noise. “It’s the equivalent of standing next to a freight train,” Petersen said. In case you’re eager to rush out and buy one, be aware that the list price is $2,500.

New apps for the Android platform include a scanner that can consume entire pages at a time, a swipe assistant that turns the full screen into an action button and a terminal emulator that bridges the gap between soft keyboards and 3270 green screens using fuzzy logic and predictive intelligence.

Those apps – and more from Zebra and its partners – are available in the new Zebra AppGallery, an online store customized for the interests of industrial customers. While populated with only about 100 apps at launch, Zebra is courting its partners to bulk it up with tools like barcode readers, professional cookbooks and mobile inventory tools. Petersen called it “the first enterprise-grade application delivery store to have been introduced in our space.”