Getting Embedded into Retail
By: Dwayne Lamb
 If you think about the number of restaurants, grocery stores, department stores and retail outlets of all types, it is easy to imagine why the Point of Sale (POS) market is worth checking out. The cash register is an excellent example of a device that has evolved from fairly proprietary beginnings. With a growing number of peripheral devices that need to interface to your typical POS solution, there is real value in standardizing not only cables and connectors but data protocols as well. The task of the cash register has also changed dramatically over the years. There was a time, not long ago, when a cash register was little more than a big mechanical adding machine that might sport a bell and a cash drawer attached to it. Today, the cash register is often connected to a wide assortment of high-tech gadgetry like laser scanners, electronic scales and debit card machines, and is often part of a network of devices that controls inventory and even Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
 As part of its Smarter Retailing Initiative, Microsoft and more than 30 other companies are working together to support a new standardized development platform specifically intended to address the issues of the Retail Point of Sale device market. The Windows Embedded for Point of Service platform will make it easier to integrate POS peripherals by providing plug-and-play type functionality including support for the UPOS (Unified Point of Service) specification introduced in 1998. Improved security, Win 32 support, and the ability to take advantage of the .NET Framework will make this an attractive platform for developers to build solutions on. The platform also promises to make it easy to integrate emerging technologies like RFID, biometrics and wireless, in combination with advanced multimedia features like Windows Media Player, to allow for innovation in future retail solutions.
The plan is to have this new platform available in the first half of 2005, however, you can bet that developers attending the Retail & Hospitality Conference being held this week in Redmond will be hearing a lot more about this new flavour of Windows XP Embedded.
For more information check out the Point-of-Service section of the Microsoft site.
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