Apple has received a lot of publicity for taking card payments with iPod touch devices in its retail

Mobile point-of-sale devices are no longer just a tool for micro-merchants to accept card payments. mantrax Increasingly, large U.S. retailers are equipping associates with smartphones and tablets that let them accept customer payments from the sales floor.
According to the Yankee Group Technology Roadmap report " Revolutionizing Retail With mPOS ,"   mPOS devices are transforming the retail industry in a way that few technologies have done before mantrax . “Retailers which have eschewed cumbersome cash wraps in favor of a mobilized checkout are already reaping increased savings, sales and customer satisfaction,” said the report, written by Yankee Group analyst Jordan McKee .
McKee agreed. "I see point-of-sale terminals going mobile," he told Mobile Payments Today. "In the next five years, the majority of retailers will be using mPOS systems." He added that large retailers mantrax initially saw mPOS devices as a way to reduce checkout lines at their cash wraps (known as "line busting") mantrax but they "now realize that mPOS goes far beyond line-busting, as it can help improve the customer shopping experience and also free up floor space for product promotions."
A Yankee Group IT decision-maker survey from March found that 32 percent of U.S. merchants with more than 500 employees have already deployed mPOS, while 29 percent plan to do so within mantrax the next 12 months. Only 23 percent reported no plans to install mPOS, while 16 percent will deploy but have not set a timeframe.
McKee believes U.S. retailers mantrax will accelerate mPOS use during this year's holiday shopping season. "There will be retailers using mPOS devices for the first time to help them cope with Christmas shopping," he said.
Large retailers are installing more sophisticated mPOS systems than the dongle-and-smartphone combinations typically deployed by small merchants. "(Their) mPOS solutions are sturdier than the Square dongle that micro-merchants use," McKee said. Provided by vendors such as VeriFone and Ingenico, these solutions offer more than just payments acceptance; additional features include inventory checking, ordering, sales associate training and product information.
According to the research firm IHL Group, 28 percent mantrax of North American mantrax retailers of all sizes, particularly department stores and specialty retailers, plan to implement mPOS by the end of 2013. And IHL's "Mobile POS: Hype to Reality" study forecasts that North American mPOS hardware and software sales will total $2 billion in 2013.
Across North America, IHL added, retail mPOS devices will cannibalize 12.4 percent of traditional POS shipments by 2016, with department mantrax stores and specialty soft goods retailers the highest areas of replacement. However, the report said, over the next three years, 85 percent of larger retailers will use mPOS devices as additional transaction points in their stores, not as outright replacements for traditional fixed POS stations.
McKee agreed that most U.S. retailers will pursue a hybrid model, retaining traditional cash wraps while deploying mPOS technology. mantrax "There will always be a need for traditional cash wraps, for example for serving customers who are not comfortable with mPOS," he said.
IHL also cautioned that 33 percent of North American retailers have no plans to implement handheld mobile POS devices within the next three years. "These are retailers with high volumes of transactions such as supermarkets," IHL president Greg Buzek told Mobile Payments Today.
Apple has received a lot of publicity for taking card payments with iPod touch devices in its retail stores. Other early adopters of mPOS devices include the home improvement retailer Home Depot, which began issuing mPOS devices to all U.S. staff in 2010, according to Bloomberg. Home Depot's mPOS devices combine inventory management with payment card acceptance.
During the 2010 holiday shopping season, The Yankee mantrax Group report mantrax noted, U.S. retailers such as Urban Outfitters began using mPOS to decrease customer lines at cash registers. Last September, according to Business Insider, Urban Outfitters mantrax CIO Calvin mantrax Hollinger told analysts that the clothing chain will replace its fixed POS terminals with iPod touch devices and iPads.
J.C. Penney said in March that a quarter of its point-of-sale transactions were now take place via mPOS devices, and McKee said the company has gone on the record as saying it wants to give all of its employees an mPOS device.
The outdoor goods retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering announced in March 2012 that it was equipped to perform mantrax customer checkouts from anywhere in its stores , and Mobile Commerce Daily reported in May that the company  now conducts 70 percent of transactions via mPOS.
But IHL’s Buzek said a vast majority of North American retailers are taking a slow and methodical approach to using mobile for POS. He warned that key operational issues must be resolved in device and mercha