Apple Stores ditching PocketPC checkout for iPod touch system
By Ronald O Carlson
Four years and much snarky criticism after Apple began using handheld point-of-sale (POS) terminals running Windows CE, the company has finally turned a corner and is now in the process of rolling out an iPod touch-based system. Same software, but the new hardware is much more capable and, surprisingly, one heckuva lot less expensive.
IfoAppleStore, fine purveyors of Apple retail knowledge, reports that the mothership is instituting a number of changes across its chain, including changes in how associates will be dressing this holiday season and how those workers will relieve you of your Christmas cash.
First off, to date, Apple Store employees wear t-shirts color coded to their job functions — orange, dark blue, light blue, medium blue and black — a system that customers never really took to. Thereupon, this year, associates will all be dressed in the same color t-shirt, which the company will change from time to time.
Secondly, the PocketPC (a.k.a. Windows CE) handheld EasyPay POS terminals used in Apple retail storefronts are getting a major overhaul, one that should save the company money (i.e. current terminals cost $800 to $1,000 each) and that associates likely will welcome.
According to an associate interviewed by AppleInsider, the company’s existing EasyPay terminals “are huge old ugly pieces of junk. I hate these things. In the middle of a transaction, I’ll hit ‘next’ and end up dumped back at the login screen. It’s so frustrating.”
A better mouse trap
So, with the advent of iPhone OS 3.0, the iPod touch can now take advantage of peripherals, in particular an advanced scanning attachment, a necessity for their use as the Apple Store POS device of choice. It’s said that whereas the PocketPC terminals currently in use crash regularly, and scan individual codes slowly and unreliably, the new iPod touch-based terminals can scan all of the codes on a package — serial number, ISDN code, UPC, SKU, etc — in a single pass.
And, until the touch could use peripherals, any solution Apple could come up with would have been one-off and thereby extremely expensive.
Are you an Apple Store employee? Laid hands on the new iPod touch-based system? Naturally, we and the rest of the world would like to hear from you…
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