“Multiple sources have noted that Apple will be transitioning its retail store EasyPay handheld checkout systems from Windows-based PDA devices to iPod touch hardware for the 2009 holiday season,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider. “Tipsters have all confirmed that Apple is already in the final stages of rolling out new EasyPay terminals based on the iPod touch combined with a credit card reader and barcode scanner.”
“One reader reported that the new devices are already being used to ring up sales at Apple’s Valley Fair Mall store in Santa Clara, California, the closest retail outlet to the company’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino,” McLean reports. “‘These things look really cool, much smaller than the Windows-based ones and faster too. They seem to be running a trial at that store, Palo [Alto] did not have them,’ the reader said.”
McLean reports, “Developing a custom solution based on the iPhone would have been an expensive project just to create a dozen or two devices for each of the company’s 225 retail stores. However, with the move to iPhone 3.0 and third party support for point of sale software and devices, there’s now little reason for Apple to stick with its slow, problematic Windows CE devices, which retail employees reported little satisfaction in using.”
McLean reports, “Like other Windows Mobile/Pocket PC devices, the EasyPay systems require a stylus to operate, they look clunky, and they’re susceptible to crashing or losing WiFi connectivity, all of which impact Apple’s ability to do business in a professional manner. Problems with EasyPay systems were blamed for helping to create long lines at the launch of the iPhone 3G last year.”
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