VDC Research: RFID, Barcode, Retail Automation & Self-Service Market Blog

Trick, or Treat? ISIS (Finally) Launches , But Will Consumers Notice?

ISIS, the NFC-enabled m.wallet joint venture between three major US MNOs (AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile), has officially launched its pilot test in Salt Lake City and Austin. Despite facing a number of challenges and setbacks during the past 18 months, with the most recent being a delay in its planned Summer 2012 launch (which itself was a rescheduled date), on Monday, October 22^nd ISIS finally went live.  While ISIS (along with Google Wallet and NFC-enabled payment in general) has been massively hyped by the general media, we, quite frankly, doubt that ISIS is the solution that will drive the average person to adopt mobile payment.

Certainly, it is promising to see continued interest in NFC (and investment dollars behind it) within the US, but in this case the final product suffers from many of the same issues that have hamstrung Google Wallet. In general, each of these problems boils down to making the m.wallet too complex, cumbersome and restrictive to use. To have any chance of unseating cash and cards as the payment incumbents, a mobile payment solution—NFC based or otherwise—must be absolutely effortless to use. Convenience and ease-of-use are among the top evaluation criteria cited by consumers in VDC’s most recent mobile payment survey. If an m.payment solution requires more customer effort than taking out a wallet, we see little chance of it being successful.

In regards to being convenient and easy-to-use, ISIS is anything but.  Adopting the m.wallet requires a consumer first to visit one of their MNO’s stores to obtain a special SIM card—regardless of the fact that many of the handsets supported by the pilot have embedded NFC chips. This handset discussion conveniently segues to another significant problem with the ISIS pilot—handset support, or more precisely, lack thereof. Currently, between the three JV partners, about 10 smartphone models are supported, limiting the choices of prospective ISIS users—although that number is (supposed) to double by year’s end. Perhaps even worse than the limited device choices is the inconsistency across the JV partners—for example, ISIS is available on the Samsung GS3 with AT&T, but not Verizon. It doesn’t make sense to us, and we suspect the average consumer will also be confused.

While VDC believes in the concept of mobile contactless payment, we see the long-term viability of any m.payment solution being dependent on its ability to add value—both for the consumer and the merchant—relative to incumbent payment methods.  If an m.payment app simply seeks to replicate cash or cards—or worse yet, makes payment more complex or restrictive—we see no chance of it gaining adoption.

Datalogic Celebrates its 40th Anniversary

This week, Datalogic, a global leader in the market for barcode readers, mobile computers, machine vision systems, personal shopping/self-scanning systems and other AutoID solutions is celebrating its 40^th anniversary. During its infancy in the early 70s, the Company specialized in the manufacture of photoelectric sensors for the textile, ceramics and packaging industries, but via ongoing investment in in-house R&D and strategic acquisitions, Datalogic’s product portfolio has steadily expanded to include a spectrum of AutoID solutions. During four decades of operation, the Italy-based Company has also vastly increased the geographic scope of its business, expanding from its original European focus to become a truly global AutoID vendor.

While Datalogic has maintained an international presence across EMEA, Asia-Pacific and the Americas since the 80s, the Company has historically been strongest in its home European market. However, over the past 18 months, Datalogic has made a concerted effort to fortify its competitive position in the Americas, particularly within the US market. To achieve this goal, the Company recently completed two significant acquisitions—PPT Vision, a supplier of machine vision solutions, and Accu-Sort, a vendor of industrial scanning and imaging solutions.

Not only have both of these acquisitions materially boosted Datalogic’s market share within each respective technology market; they also have afforded the Company instant access to well-established regional distribution networks and new application/vertical opportunities. Via the Accu-Sort transaction, Datalogic became the stationary industrial barcode scanner share leader in the Americas, according to VDC’s data. VDC expects the Company will continue to strengthen its presence in that region as it integrates these two acquisitions and fully harnesses the operational and sales synergies they offer.

Looking to the future, VDC believes Datalogic will continue to build its presence in the AutoID markets via pursuing additional complementary acquisitions, logical expansion into adjacent/emerging technologies and maintaining its position as an AutoID innovator through ongoing R&D investment.

 

 

Urban Outfitters CIO Says Its Checkouts are Going Fully Mobile

In a recent post, we discussed the impact mobile POS adoption is having on the broader POS market, particularly in the context of stationary POS heavyweights like NCR, IBM, Wincor-Nixdorf and the like. Long story short: m.POS has proven itself to be a valuable retail tool during the past 18-24 months, and has reshaped the POS competitive landscape as a result. An increasing number of merchants are investing in mobile POS, and in doing so, are disrupting some long-established conventions in retail automation technology. Urban Outfitters (UO) is among the latest examples of retailers that have committed to m.POS—and this particular apparel retailer has done so in a big way. The Company’s CIO announced last week that its stores will abandon stationary checkouts and go fully mobile in the near-term.

Urban Outfitters is no m.POS newcomer, having used mobile POS in its stores for approximately two years. However, its shift to a fully mobile checkout strategy marks an unprecedented level of commitment to the technology for the company. Until now, UO deployed mobile POS only as a complementary solution alongside its traditional, stationary terminals. As with its earlier deployments, UO’s chain-wide m.POS rollout will use iPad and iPod touch devices running an application that supports returns/exchanges, stocking, inventory inquiries and special orders—in addition to standard checkout and payment functions, of course.

As is typical with m.POS deployments, UO cited improving customer experience and empowering employees as key factors driving the transition to a 100% mobile POS solution. Interestingly, UO also acknowledged the cost advantage of mobile vs. stationary terminals—something most retailers do not mention when discussing their mobile investment. According to the Company, its iPad-based terminals are approximately 1/5^th the cost of a standard stationary terminal, while iPod-touch based units are only 1/10^th. Obviously, the lifecycle of consumer-grade devices will not match that of the more robust enterprise-grade POS terminals, but we wonder exactly how much more frequently the iPad/iPod touch will be need to be replaced.

While VDC believes in the value, utility and long-term viability of mobile POS in retail and other types of merchants (especially hospitality, including QSRs, fast casual and table service restaurants) we are not sold on the notion that mobile POS is a universal replacement for traditional, stationary checkout. Certainly, some brands and store formats (e.g., Apple Stores) are well-suited to going fully mobile. Conversely, such a move could be entirely disastrous in other merchants for a variety of reasons, including large average basket sizes, store size and layout, for example. That being said, we think Urban Outfitters’ store size, layout and brand image bode well for a successful transition to an all-mobile POS strategy. Mobile POS is one of the markets VDC will be tracking in our 2013 MCET research. Click here to learn more.

Happy 60th Birthday to the First Barcode Patent Filing!

This week marks the 60th birthday of the first patent filing for a technology that is very close to our hearts here in the VDC AutoID practice: barcode. To most people, a barcode is nothing but a bunch of black and white lines on the products they purchase at the store, but for us—the AutoID professionals and enthusiasts of the world—the barcode is an efficient, elegant and cost-effective way of storing and accessing data that has stood the test of time.

In the technology world, 60 years is an eternity. Reflect briefly on the devices/ technologies that seemed cutting edge just 10 or 15 years ago, and we bet you will smile reminiscing about the simpler days of dial-up modems, Zack Morris-style cell phones and good old PDAs. Now consider that barcode existed for decades before all of these things, and that it is still alive and well today. In many ways, it is a notable achievement. While barcode is certainly a mature technology, we see a strong future ahead for the barcode market, thanks to its ongoing evolution and the development of vertical- and application-specific uses. VDC sees a other indicators of barcode’s vitality:

• Increased consumer use of mobile barcode for a range of commerce-related applications including couponing, loyalty, information access and even payment. Demonstrated consumer interest in scanning barcodes via their smartphones is driving retailers, hospitality providers, CPG brands and other consumer-facing enterprises to invest in solutions that engage these shoppers.
• The US FDA’s Unique Device Identifier (UDI) mandate will increase barcode adoption (and other AutoID solutions) in healthcare: The federal UDI mandate, set to take effect in 2014 for high-risk (i.e., implantable) medical devices (and subsequently for lower-risk categories) requires all medical devices to be marked with a unique code containing critical information including manufacturer, model number and expiration date. While we expect barcode will not be the only solution used to comply with this regulation, it is highly likely to play a prominent role.
• New symbologies have recently emerged, and others are in development. Han Xin Code and Ultracode, for example, are two of the most recently introduced barcode types. Han Xin codes were developed to encode large numbers of Chinese, numeric and ASCII characters, and can be printed in multiple sizes, while Ultracode was designed for printing on uneven surfaces that are poorly-suited to standard symbologies. We expect additional symbologies could emerge in the future to address specific requirements, particularly for consumer-facing applications.

Some NFC and RFID evangelists claim these technologies will ultimately lead to the demise of the barcode. VDC does not expect that to happen, nor do we expect any major market shift away from barcode to occur anytime soon. Barcode has a lot of momentum and will be extremely difficult to displace:  it is universally supported, highly cost-effective (from both a printing and hardware/solution perspective), familiar to consumers and enterprises and boasts 40 years of proven experience in retail—barcode was first tested by Kroger Supermarkets in 1972, 20 years after its invention. The “scanless”/contactless future NFC and RFID promise could very well become reality someday far from now, but for the time being, we expect barcode to remain dominant in most applications. Happy birthday, barcode…