Philips supported many professional applications in retail environments with CD-i technology. One of the tools was in offering product encyclopedias, to store contents labeled with bar codes. The Datalogic scanner was able to scan the bar code and the CD-i could look up the product data, including specs. Philips wanted to simplify the process for companies to keep their storage documented, instead of using more extensive and more complicated PC software,
Philips advertised CD-i to be more reliable, simple and cheaper. Behind the screens I realized several systems actually ran on CD-i, like in hospitals and libraries.
CD-i was much more than a games machine: It was far more competing with CD-ROM and PC as a standard, to bring all sort of IT solutions to consumers and professionals, with CD-i as a broad and safe standard. It's hard to tell how popular the professional CD-i applications actually were, but they were used up and including 2009, so after Philips dropped CD-i as a consumer platform, it stayed alive behind the screens in various professional applications.
Datalogic as a company is still popular today. It is is an Italian company working in the automatic data capture and process automation markets. The group specializes in the design and production of barcode readers, mobile computers, radio-frequency identification, sensors for detection, etc.