A new report announcing the release of Windows Embedded POSReady 7 brought my attention to yet another niche the iPad may soon encroach on: The POS, or Point of Sales terminal, the linchpin of many retailers and restaurants, which enables services like ringing up sales and inventory tracking.

"Upwards of 50% of specialty retailers are looking to deploy handheld POS devices to replace many of their standard POS systems," said Greg Buzek, president of market research firm IHL Group, according to InformationWeek. POS vendors with ready iPad-based solutions include Revel Systems and POS Lavu.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) currently holds 87% of the POS market, which was pegged at $15.4 billion last year. And the software giant is hardly resting on its laurels: Windows Embedded POSReady 7 leverages on the Windows 7 platform and "includes support for multi-gesture touch interfaces and context aware applications."

Despite the attention, it looks like the iPad will for now only appeal to smaller businesses with basic POS needs such as printing receipts and processing credit cards. Larger establishments would have already invested in the development of extensive back-end analytics and server applications that cannot be easily migrated to the iPad.

For more:
- check out this article at InformationWeek

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