After many months, I walked in to the friendly, local, Apple Store in the mall. There weren't too many new products although the big screen iMacs are nice! The sales person was very helpful and gave all the news on the upcoming iPad. However, the thing that caught my attention was the iPod Touch in her hand. In a matter of few minutes, the Apple sales person, helped a customer purchase a few products and completed all transactions on the iPod Touch. The iPod touch unit had a barcode scanner, and a magnetic credit card reader. The application on the iPod touch was EZ Pay.
To me, this a revolution in the store Point of Sale systems. A typical cash register with bells and whistles could cost around $6000, including hardware and software etc. With the iPod touch even if the accessories cost a lot and the whole unit could be less than $1000.
If a retail store has 3 registers, the firm would spend $18000. With this iPod touch system, you could spend less than $3000. The sales person or cashier can roam around in the store. Talk to customers and help them check out in a matter of minutes.
Are the traditional Point of Sale systems going to be relics of the past? Will they end up in a museum some day? Will be very interesting to see the product evolution in the next 5 years. Will be an interesting journey for sure.
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