#Apple pos systems for retail software

Apple's immediate impact will be more on online and mobile purchases. In the mid- to long-term, we'll see retail payments changing. (The only other option is to not sell iPhones.) Google has had to deal with fragmentation of phones, both because of handset OEMs and carriers pushing for their own systems. But few people do, because the iPod came along (and with iTunes) created a better experience.Īpple is in the unique position that it can tell carriers exactly what will ship on its devices. Remember the Rio PMP? That was an early MP3 player. But incorporating a technology isn't what drives its adoption. 'But but but Google had it first and Apple is catching up,' is something I hear a lot. (There are also financial benefits I'll explore those in a separate post.) They can rely on APIs provided by the OS instead of having to incorporate libraries from companies like Braintree and supporting multiple alternative payment systems. It's great news for the manufacturers of NFC terminals the volume will go up substantially. (Though Sprint is a laggard on VoLTE and had its own cluster with WiMAX.)* We're seeing some unification now with LTE and VoLTE. Manufacturers had to create different SKUs with different radios. Consumers had to ditch handsets they paid for. This separation turned out to be a clusterfuck. Verizon and Sprint went with CDMA and AT&T and T-Mobile used GSM.

We've seen what's happened when there isn't a common standard in the wireless industry. I recently had to talk a Target cashier into accepting an image of a gift card on my phone, despite the fact that Target has officially supported it for years. required learning a new experience, both for consumers and cashiers. They don't have to learn different systems depending on their phone or the retailer's payment terminal. There's no reason to implement alternative payment systems given that the two largest (and only meaningful) players in mobile devices are using NFC. NFC is a safe choice for mobile payments. Especially in the U.S., you don't want to pick a technology only to have Apple do something different. Retailers had been holding out to see what Apple would do in the space. And you also have to retrain thousands of employees on the new system to make sure that consumers have a good experience. Not only do you have to pay for the hardware, there are often systems integration costs. Massive infrastructure changes, such as swapping out payment terminals or upgrading POS systems is expensive. (It's bad news for Paypal, which I discussed earlier.) And it's good news for a lot of companies, including Google. What it often means is that the giant company had acquisitions discussions with the startup and it fell through, either because of team or valuation.īut Apple did validate NFC. It's the standard response from startup PR people when a giant enters a new space.

#Apple pos systems for retail software

''s entry into has validated our market and reinforces our product.' Retail businesses can get started with a new POS system, including software and hardware for as little as 579 with most of that cost being the one-off hardware expenses.