Designed to bring consumer-facing businesses up-to-date with today’s technology and help them stay future-proof, Poynt is a smart payment terminal that supports multiple payment methods, encrypted transactions and allows for extended functionality to be added over time.
The Poynt terminal features a 7-inch merchant-facing screen, a second 4.3-inch customer-facing screen, a barcode scanner and a built-in printer in a compact device. It connects to the internet via Wi-Fi or 3G, can accept payments via cards, Apple Pay and other NFC/Bluetooth mobile apps, and can be moved around — away from the cash register to customers’ tables, to delivery destinations and even to the curb for take-away customers.
Poynt terminals can be connected to any merchant bank and operated right out of the box. It runs on PoyntOS, a forked version of Android designed specially for the device, and can integrate with existing cash registers, ticket printers and other peripherals.
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The custom OS also supports apps from third-party developers for additional functionality like point-of-sale operations, inventory management and store analytics — and Poynt already has partners liked Bigcommerce, Intuit, and Vend signed up to deploy said apps.
The company behind Poynt was founded by former head of Google Wallet and veteran PayPal exec Osama Bedier, who believes that “commerce infrastructure is broken.” By October next year, all merchants will have to switch to chip-based EMV card-compatible payment terminals, and so Bedier says this is the right time for businesses to make the shift to his company’s future-proof offering.
Backed by Matrix Partners, Google Ventures and other investors, Palo Alto, CA-based Poynt is on track to ship dev kits of their terminals by December this year, and fully functional Smart Terminals to businesses in early 2015, at a pre-order price of $299. That means we’ll have to wait until next year to see if this is indeed the future of how we pay for Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
➤ Poynt
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