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MS Unveils Windows Embedded POS for Retail and Hospitality Industry

Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability of Windows Embedded for Point of Service version 1.1, positioned as a core offering within its 'Smarter Retailing' initiative. Windows Embedded for Point of Service is a retail-optimized software platform that is aimed at providing plug-and-play functionality, enabling retail peripherals to be easily installed and managed. This integration and management helps retailers lower device life-cycle costs and reduce time spent connecting devices.

“Windows Embedded for Point of Service is a flexible and powerful tool for retailers like Virgin Megastores,” said Robert Fort, director of information technology at Virgin Entertainment Group Inc. “By leveraging the devices, applications and scenarios the platform enables, not only will Virgin be able to provide our customers what they want, we will also better understand our customer’s future needs.”

In a survey completed by the retail and hospitality industry analyst firm IHL Consulting Group Inc., between 37 percent and 45 percent of retailers purchasing new point-of-sale terminals want to continue to use existing peripherals. Windows Embedded for Point of Service version 1.1 provides updated support for the UnifiedPOS retail peripheral standard version 1.9 and expanded support for legacy device peripherals such as Coin Dispenser, Keylock, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR), POS Power, Scale, Signature Capture and Tone Indicator. This enables retailers to continue using existing retail peripherals while point-of-service systems are upgraded.

Retailers that have licensed Windows XP Professional for their POS terminals can now take advantage of the simplified device management support that was previously only available in Windows Embedded for Point of Service, through the recently released Microsoft POS for .NET 1.1, which can be downloaded free from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads.


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