Apple Point of Sale: Speculation Spreads

You read it here first. On November 24th The VAR guy speculated Apple might be making a leap into the POS (point of sale) device arena. Call it an educated hunch, based on recent trends in the Apple Stores. But it turns out, Apple might be turning around and trying to make a buck off their in-house POS R&D. Here’s the update.

MacRumors.com is pulling in info from ifoAppleStore that says Apple is actually considering commercializing the iPod touch-based EasyPay POS system. Initially, it seemed to be a proprietary software / hardware combination, but apparently, Apple has been bombarded with requests to use the technology. Whispers from tipsters say that Apple Executives have asked the  “retail store business specialists” to keep track of people with piqued interests in the device. The reason? To potentially to build a database of customers that Apple could sell the POS system to.

If Apple jumps on this POS opportunity, it has the potential to shake up the way VARs and MSPs do business in the retail vertical. No  doubt, POS offerings from companies like Motorola are popular. (Motorola acquired barcode and POS specialist Symbol Technologies a few years back…).

But when there’s an Apple tool in a high-tech arena, it potentially becomes a game-changer. It didn’t take long for people to request iPhone compatibility on the enterprise level. Can you imagine a retail store revolutionized by a sleek handheld POS?

Potentially, distributors could stock iPod touches with their special POS jackets. And with Apple one tendril into the the POS market, it may not be long until we see a complete overhaul of the way retail stores do business. Imagine one Mac Mini server in the back of the store with a bunch of iPod touches doing all the mark-ups.

But let’s not end the speculation there… Imagine a Mac Tablet running EasyPay. In theory, you could replace that clunky 3-part register with an Apple all-in-one solution.