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North American Retail POS Terminal Market Study
Format: Electronic PDF
Date of Publication: February 15, 2010
License: Enterprise/Electronic - See Pricing Tab for Fair Use
Pricing: $2,995.00
Geography: North America
Author(s): Lee Holman, Greg Buzek
Purchase Now Download Preview

Overview Preview FAQs Pricing

What do you define as POS?

At IHL we believe it is important that we state clearly the definitions of what we are classifying as a POS device. For the purposes of our analysis, we are defining POS as PC-based workstations, namely PC-class Processor-based and LAN-available terminals. Although others might include Electronic Funds Terminals as POS, we do not include them here. Perhaps the best definitions come from the use of the current model names of the top vendors that we are including:

  • IBM: SurePOS family

  • Wincor Nixdorf: BEETLE family

  • NCR: RealPOS family

  • ICL/Fujitsu: TeamPOS 3000 family

In our research, we do include PC on Cash Drawer Devices (PCOCD), however, we do not attempt to distinguish between vendors unless a particular market is affected significantly. We do include Self-Checkout terminals in the count, but do not break them out separately. For this detail we suggest our Self-Checkout Study.

We do not include Electronic Cash Registers (ECR) in our study. Although the lines have blurred as to POS and ECR in terms of processors and connectivity, we believe there is a clear distinction in functionality, expandability, and serviceability between the devices. Thus, we are considering the low end devices in the study as those of the Wincor Beetle 20, IBM 4614, and NCR Falcon variety and the TEC terminals that fit the POS criteria.

What segments are included in the study?

Our format for the study is based on detailed analysis of the following 10 retail market segments:
  • Food/Supermarkets
  • Drug Stores
  • Superstores/Warehouse Clubs
  • Department Stores
  • Category Killers (Home Centers, Electronics, Pet Superstores, Bookstores, Sporting Goods, Furniture, etc.)
  • Specialty Other (mall and strip-mall based Specialty Stores, predominantly apparel, shoes and gifts)
  • Mass Merchandisers (includes Discount Stores)
  • Convenience Stores/Gas Stations
  • Bar/Restaurants
  • Quick Service/Fast Food

How do you define the processors included?

Throughout this report, we deliberately categorize all processors by speed rather than by name. Since Intel is the market leader and the most identifiable, we use the following familiar designations for our processor definitions.
  • 286/386/486
  • Pentium" I, II & III/Via/Cyrix
  • Celeron/Sempron
  • Pentium" 4/M
  • Dual Core
  • Core 2 Duo and Above


While in the last several years there have been other processor entries (notably VIA/Cyrix and AMD), all herein are referred to as "Intel-class" processors, whether Intel, MediaGX, AMD K5, K6-2, Duron or Athlon. Further, since the population of older machines continues to dwindle and newer processors come online, we decided to combine the older processors (286/386/486 together, PI/II/III together) and expand the newer processors into their own categories (Celeron/Sempron, P4, Dual Core, Core 2 Duo & Above)


How do you categorize operating systems?

With regard to operating systems, our focus is on the following.
  • DOS and Legacy Windows (includes 3.1, 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP)
  • 4690
  • Windows Vista/Windows 7
  • Windows CE
  • Windows XPe
  • Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 (includes WEPOS)
  • Linux (all varieties)
  • Other (includes different derivatives of UNIX, BeOS, MAC, etc.)


For the purposes of this report we do not count units that are in labs; we only count those in pilot or in rollout.


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