Restaurant POS Systems iPad reviews // POS system

Apple's iPad is being eagerly adopted by retailers in all segments. It's expected that by 2017, over 3.6 million iPads will have been shipped for use in North American retail and hospitality operations. Its attractive design, user-friendly interface and relatively affordable setup and maintenance costs are making iPad POS systems an appealing choice for retail operations. As a result, more and more point-of-sale vendors are releasing iPad applications for their POS systems. However, no iPad POS solution is perfect. Each type of deployment has its benefits and drawbacks. In this guide we'll cover:

Note: This guide covers POS systems specifically with respect to Apple's iPad. For POS solutions that may work for other tablets, see our tablet POS guide; and for systems that can run on any mobile device (including smartphones), see our mobile POS (mPOS) guide.

Deployment Options

Web-based systems. With this deployment option, users access a vendor's point-of-sale application by logging into the system via a Web browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox etc.). The benefit of this type of application is that retailers don't have to worry about software updates and backups. While many Web-based point-of-sale applications are responsive-developed to be viewable on a variety of devices at different resolutions—they may not be developed specifically for iPad, so the experience may not be flawless.

Remote access. In a remote access point-of-sale environment, the system is hosted in a central location and is accessed remotely via a virtual private network (VPN). It's important to note that remote managed applications are prone to "back door" attacks and should comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, more commonly referred to as PCI compliance. This deployment option is becoming less commonplace.

Native iPad apps. Native iPad point of sale applications are developed specifically for iOS powered devices and deliver the best possible user experience. Native applications are installed directly to the iPad or other Apple device. The benefit is these applications are typically fast and reliable. The downside is they may require fees to upgrade and manual updating.

Benefits and Potential Issues

iPad POS systems are often great solutions for retail start-ups, small retail operations and mobile retailers (e.g., food truck vendors) because they're easy to implement, scalable and affordable compared to traditional POS systems.