Mobile Devices: Who's On Your Side?
May 2012 Integrated Solutions For Retailers
By Matt Pillar, Editor In Chief
Lately, I’ve enjoyed an opportunity to do a little bit of writing for our sister publication, Business Solutions magazine (www.bsminfo.com). Business Solutions serves the reseller channel, and the work I’ve been doing for the title puts me in direct contact with retail technology VARs and systems integrators. The perspective they’ve given me on the role of consumergrade mobile devices in retail presents an interesting dichotomy within the industry, pitting retailers’ desires against solutions providers’ wares.
If you source technology solutions through a VAR or systems integrator, particularly a small one, perhaps you’ve experienced it firsthand. You want to deploy POS solutions and other mobile apps on consumer-grade iPad/Android devices. Your reseller/integrator will have none of it.
The first line of defense a VAR or integrator will likely present is that consumer-grade devices lack the ruggedness necessary for commercial use in retail. We’ve all heard the side-by-side comparison that so many traditionalists hang their hat on. Yes, the iPad is sleek and sexy and magical, its interface is familiar and intuitive enough that anyone can navigate it within minutes of picking it up. But, it’s made of thin aluminum and lots of glass, so you can’t drop it from a 4-foot display or spill a steaming latte on it and expect it to work. This argument, posited by so many rugged handheld manufacturers and their resellers, still has merit. But it’s an argument that’s getting tired, and given the low price point of the devices, fewer end users of the devices really care.
In reality, there’s an underlying and equally important issue faced by the reseller/ integrator, and as they vigorously deflect your inquisition into Androids and iPads, it’s playing out in the back of their mind: Profit. Android and iOS devices are commodities. Channel players have long groused about declining margins on the sale of rugged and proprietary handheld devices, and the onslaught of consumer-grade devices in retail has exacerbated that plight. The money they can’t make selling that which you can buy at virtually any big box store or online equivalent makes software and services their only salvation for sales.
Unfortunately, most small VARs don’t have development capabilities. Those that do can do little more than invest in the production of interesting but limited applications. That’s not what the market clamors for. If you want a fully functioning representation of your fixed-lane POS running on an iPad, your pickings are slim. Those take lots of time and a big budget to develop. And, once they’re developed, your service provider has to figure out how to sell it profitably. How will it configure licenses and hosting fees, which are its only resolve to making money? It’s no wonder why the dichotomy exists.
If you’re bent on consumer-grade tablet devices as your means to anywhere, anytime customer service and sales, don’t expect an enthusiastic response from your thirdparty solutions provider. That’s not to say they can’t be swayed, and if your current provider won’t accommodate, someone will. The channel is keenly aware that the very definition of POS is changing right before its eyes.