Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Franchisee Columnist Todd Michaud has spent the last 16 years trying to fight IT issues, with the last six years focused on franchisee IT issues. He is currently responsible for IT at Focus Brands (Cinnabon, Carvel, Schlotzsky’s and Moe’s Southwestern Grill).

I am holding a new iPhone4, and I am amazed at what this little device can do for less than $400. But it does make me wonder: With all this functionality, why is it that I am currently spending $10,000 for the technology required to ring up a burrito? Something is out of whack.

I am updating my earlier prediction that cloud computing and 4G would change the POS landscape. I now believe that tablet computers and smartphones will lead the charge to the next POS revolution. Although I still believe that cloud computing and 4G will be integral to the process, the biggest changes will have resulted from Steve Jobs delivering the iPad and iPhone4 to consumers in the first half of 2010.

For $500, I can buy a WiFi-enabled iPad that has a 1GHz processor and 16GB of storage. That is more than enough computing power to run the cashier functions of a POS, yet POS terminals can cost as much as $2,000 each. Do we really get $1,500 worth of value for that system?

The answer is “Maybe yes, and maybe not.” (Harvard Law Professor Arthur Miller once had a panelist say that very same thing during a discussion and he shot back, “Do you really get paid to give answers like that?”) Under the “maybe yes” umbrella, we have to remember the harsh environment where POS lives. How would an iPad hold up to hundreds of thousands of “touches” from a busy QSR? How would an iPad do in an environment where food, water, steam, etc., are standard? Could you manage menus on a 9.7-inch screen instead of a 15-inch one?

Under the “maybe not” answer is this question: How much money does that kind of hardening—or screen size—really cost? If we deconstructed the requirements that drive the costs, would we still “require” them? For example, if you found out that to get a screen size from 9.7 inches to 15 inches would add 20 percent to the cost, would you consider reworking your menus to fit a smaller screen? I’m just wondering if anyone is asking these questions, or whether we are all just blindly accepting that POS units are built a certain way.

Sure you can build your own POS system by piecing together a hardware package and a software solution. But that system is difficult for the franchise-based systems of owners who do not want to be in the POS support business. Most large chains that I am aware of are looking for a company that can provide a scalable solution to thousands of restaurants with one “throat to choke,” if you will. Is that need for a top-tier provider inflating our costs by forcing us to purchase more than we want and need?

I am not saying that the iPhone or the iPad is going to be the next generation of POS. But I am saying that if Apple can deliver consumers this type of technology at a price of $400, then it will only be a matter of time before commercial uses of that technology take hold. Coffee shops are already using iPads and Square technology to service their customers. So far, however, there is nothing mainstream. Why?