Point of Sale Hardware: 100 Years of Evolution

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• Publié par: seorumer
• Publié le: 20 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• Langue: English

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Point of Sale Hardware: 100 Years of Evolution I have my B.A. in History and my inner nerd gets really excited when I can combine the past with information on present technology (I’m so ready to join the cast ofThe Big Bang Theory). Wait! Don’t leave! I promise that this article will be really interesting and that you will be able to apply real life knowledge to improving how you run your business. (Wow, those are two really big claims. If I’m wrong, I vow to magically give you back these next ten minutes of your life.) 1883- Of course point of sale systems started before the cash register (like with the exchange of wampum shells or calculations made on an abacus), but the first modern day version of the cash register was invented by James Ritty and John Birch following the American Civil War. Ritty owned a saloon and wanted a way to prevent his employees from stealing the cash, therefore bringing “Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier” into existence. 1884– Unfortunately for Ritty, no one was really buying into his new invention so he decided to sell his patent. John Henry Patterson and his brother Frank Jefferson Patterson bought the company and the rights then renamed it theNational Cash Register Company (NCR). Not only is it still in existence today, but it has been the premier manufacturer of cash registers and on the forefront of innovation for many decades. 1911– NCR sells one million cash registers and employs over 6,000 workers. 1922– John Patterson dies just as the company reaches the two million mark. The company also went public that year with an issue of $55 million in stock (the largest public offering in United States history at that time). 1953– Carbonless copy paper is invented and protected under US Patent 2,730,457. It was sold as “NCR Paper.” In that same year, NCR acquires the Computer Research Corporation and establishes a specialized electronics division.

1956- NCR introduces its first electronic device, the Class 29 Post-Tronic, a bank machine using magnetic stripe technology (this is the info on the bottom of your checks and deposit slips that identifies your bank code, account number, check number, etc.). 1962- NCR introduces the NCR-315 Electronic Data Processing System which included the CRAM storage device, the first automated mass storage alternative to magnetic tape with the introduction of the microchip. 1973- IBM releases the IBM 3650 and 3660 store systems which were basically mainframe computers used as store controllers that could manage up to 128 IBM 3653/3663 point of sale registers. This system was the first commercial use of client- server technology, peer-to-peer communications, local area network (LAN) simultaneous backup, and remote initialization. 1974– The Universal Product Code (UPC) was introduced. 1976- The Apple I went on sale in July for US$666.66. (It’s not an iPad POS system yet, but wait for it…) (Fun Fact with no point: On December 13, 2014, a fully functioning early Apple I was sold at auction for $365,000.) 1986- Gene Moshe introduces the first graphical POS software. “It featured a color touch screen widget-driven interface that allowed configuration of widgets representing menu items without low level programming…This was the first commercially available POS system with a widget-driven color graphic touch screen interface and was installed in several restaurants in the USA and Canada,” explained onWikipedia. 1992- Martin Goodwin and Bob Henry creates the first point of sale software that could run on the Microsoft Windows platform named IT Retail. This was monumental as it made available local processing power, local data storage, networking, and graphical user interface. It essentially made POS systems accessible for the masses especially since the cost also reduced greatly at this point.

2000– Cloud computing comes into existence. 2008–NASA's OpenNebula becomes the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds. 2010- Vaughan Rowsell launches Vend, the first cloud-based retail software platform which enables retailers to accept payments, manage their inventories, reward customer loyalty, and garner insights into their business in real-time. 2015– Regardless if you have one employee or 1,000, POS systems are available for any business owner on any budget. What once required expensive hardware for minimal tasks now requires access to the Internet and as little as a moderately priced mobile device. Online cash register software is now easy to use, multifunctional, and gives reports in real time. While POS systems used to just be clunky, overpriced adding machines, now you can literally run every aspect of your business from one. Not sure how? Check out how point of sale hardware is revolutionizing the marketplacehere. You to leave your old POS software system behind and reach your company’s potential by checking out whatVend has to offer.