Postal Service Starting To Use Mobile Point of Sale Tech 75
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. Postal Service is conducting a pilot test of mobile point of sale technology in 50 facilities, using a modified iPod device and printers. During the holiday season, the 50 facilities testing mPOS processed more than 102,000 transactions using the technology."
Re:Before anybody complains (Score:4, Interesting)
You know what? That sounds like a very successful test of using iThings for point of sale. Not that the iThing was successful, but I bet your experience helped the retailer understand that those devices sucked for the task. At least temporarily.
POS providers are under constant pressure to "put mobile POS systems in my store" or "the Apple store uses iPods, why can't we?" Apparently every marketer associates being cool with the use of iPhones. They parade a profound lack of knowledge of human interface design, usability, workflow, and productivity as some kind of badge of honor, like "we're breaking through traditions and making our cashiers cool." Then when someone finally runs a real-world test and proves that cashiers will slow down by a factor of five; they have no place for shopping bags, hangers, flat surfaces for folding sweaters, or receipt printers; the sleds triple the bulk and weight of the devices; and the customers are pissed off at the long waits and longer lines, the marketer puts his tail between his legs and slinks back into his cubicle, having failed at the task of bringing "cool iThings" into the stores. The marketing executives blame the failure on the project management, on the project team, or on anything that went wrong, but never seem to learn the failure stems from the limitations of the human interfaces required to actually sell stuff.
Twelve months later, the next fresh face in charge of marketing repeats the cycle. It never ends.
Now get off my lawn.