Retailers Work On Their Own POS Systems for Apple's Products

This week 9to5Mac reported that an American clothing and accessories retailer Gap was using Apple's iPod-based POS system in a few of its Old Navy stores. The blog wrongly decided that Apple started to market the custom mobile software used in its own retail stores, and that Gap became a retailer which helps the company to test pilot it.

Indeed, some retailers also use the same hardware Apple uses, a third party product called the "Linea Pro" which is developed by Infinite Peripherals. To create this product the latter just added to iPod touch a barcode scanner, a rechargeable battery pack and credit card magnetic strip.

But the main difference in retailers' and Apple's approaches is that the latter uses a specific iOS app called EasyPay, that was custom-designed to be compatible with Oracle 360Commerce, a solution used as a company's backend retail software. That makes EasyPay of limited value for retailers, so they continue to look into and develop their own solutions with using Apple's iOS devices.

Sandeep Bhanote, who is a Global Bay CEO, says many major retailers are already commissioning their own POS solutions that are based on the iPod touch, and now think of using iPad as a retail kiosk and tool to deliver personalized shopping services for VIP clients. Global Bay is a company that works closely with the enterprise team of Apple to implement mobile retail system for Guess Jeans with deploying the same hardware that is used in Apple's retail stores.

In his interview with AppleInsider Bhanote also told there are two types of products targeted to bring mobile payment systems to businesses. One of them will be useful for small & medium size enterprises and includes such solutions as PAYware Mobile by Verifone, LightSpeed Mobile by Xsilva, and PayPal's own iOS app for making transactions through its service. Another type is needed for established retailers who look for a solution that could be tied into their existing backend software. That's the products Global Bay is working on.