Comment by doublerebel | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doublerebel | Hacker News Reader

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Having worked in several retail, wholesale, and restaurant positions with a variety of POS, I think this is a very interesting space ripe for disruption from multiple angles. Marketing seems to be the differentiating factor between the major players at this time, as the article states.

What I think the article misses to point out, is the great variations in actual usability of the systems. POS analytics and systems with robust central backups are not new. Having so many UX designers now able to participate, and being able to rapidly iterate versions with fixes users actually need, is very new. Without saying too much, I am very excited to be moving these technologies forward at this particular time.

Thanks for the feedback. I tend to agree with you about the fact that the analytics and backups offered are not new, but the accessibility to designers is, and I'm glad that you pointed it out more explicitly than I have -- especially given your experience.

I also think that in some ways, the 'usability' of each technology is the big hurdle that must first be cleared before "marketing" becomes the key differentiator. I approached this with the thought that among the existing (or discussed) technologies, any improvement in the technology or functionality is, at best, incremental. That, along with some other factors, is why I suggested that marketing would represent the key differentiator. Glad to hear other thoughts on that, too.

Traditionally this has been the case, and largely because POS required such a large upfront investment that merchants needed to be sure (or be 'sure' thanks to a product already having been established in the market) of what the details of the implementation are. When changing POS is as easy as uninstalling one app and installing another... UI will be a much greater factor. I expect many players to attempt to tie-in users through one method or another as a crutch for lacking quality UX.

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