Casio have just released their new VX-100 EPOS terminal, which operates on the well-known Android™ smartphone platform. Grocery trade experts are hailing this as an industry first which will revolutionise food and drink retailing, and transform the EPOS terminal into a versatile and sophisticated sales and business management tool.
The VX-100 is a compact EPOS terminal equipped with a colour main display with full-touch screen operation, a sub-display that is great for showing information to customers, and a built-in thermal printer to generate receipts. The VX-100 is designed for use in SME food and drink retailing stores, and works as both a standalone system and as part of a networked system.
The Casio VX-100 hardware platform features a large 10.4 inch SVGA colour LCD with a rugged splash proof touch panel. The viewing angle of this LCD has an electronic adjustment, allowing the perfect position to be set by the operator. An integrated pop-up monochrome LCD shows clear customer information, and can be used for advertising messages, the running receipt total and payment confirmation. An additional benefit to the user is a built-in 80mm receipt printer, with easy to use drop-in paper loading. No interface cables are required and the new EPOS system is simply unpacked, powered-up and ready to use. The Android™ platform results in a boot-up time faster than PC based EPOS solutions available today. First-time system configuration is also much easier and faster to set-up for a new operator.
The VX-100 comes installed with a sales management application offering a host of data management capabilities. Additional customer relationship management applications can be installed to enable database management of the purchase history of individual customers. The purchase history can then be used to identify preferred customers, provide better customer service and formulate marketing strategies tailored to them.
The VX-100 hardware platform consumes considerably less power than a conventional PC based EPOS system, requiring only 20 watts on full power and 4.1 watts in stand-by mode. This is a saving of over 85% when compared to most PC based EPOS systems. With electricity costs rising faster than ever before, this is a significant cost saving to both the independent food and drink storeowner and a national operator with a large EPOS estate.
An optional cash drawer is available from Casio or a third-party manufacturer. The wide selection of communication and data-storage options include a LAN and USB interface, together with two cash drawer ports and SD memory card slot. The new VX-100 EPOS solution is one of the quietest available, perfect for noise-intolerant environments. This all-in-one hardware platform weighs only 5kg, with a small foot-print of 395(W) x 237(D) x 229(H) mm, ideal for the limited space on most POS countertops.
Now the leading operating system on smartphones, this migration of the Android™ platform to the retail environment marks an exciting development for the food and drink retailing industry. As the first EPOS system running Android™, the Casio VX-100 has a low cost of entry. There are no costly licensing fees and all development tools are free of charge. For the retailer, this solution provides a faster and more stable platform, as all applications have access to the same APIs. Casio has provided a software development kit that supports the VX-100 hardware.
Casio plans to leverage the VX-100 to support a variety of businesses such as food and drink retail stores by developing its own additional applications, as well as facilitating development of applications for the VX-100 by other developers of Android applications.
Casio Electronics Co Ltd
Tel: 0208 450 9131
Email: android@casio.co.uk
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