POS Software Trends 2010

In its most comprehensive point of sale software coverage of the year, Hospitality Technology presents the results of its reader survey on top POS technology. 2010, perhaps, will be the year that table-side ordering starts to make real traction in the U.S. Nearly half of all operators polled say that tableside POS for ordering and/or payment (at 46.6 %) will be the "most interesting" POS technology to their company in 2010, from a list that also includes, among other things, enterprise POS (which came in a close second at 45.1%), software-as-a-service (24.8%), open source (22.9%), and cloud computing (19.3%). Many technology vendors agree that tableside ordering, perhaps even via smart phones such as the iPhone, will have appeal to operators in 2010. We're also revealing operator's buying plans in 2010. Most of you (36.6%) expect to add new functionality to your current software; another 14% are selecting a new vendor entirely, and 27.1% of you told us you're currently shopping around.

To help you make those purchasing decisions, and to track what technologies are expected to make the most impact on POS in 2010, HT also collected information from the industry's major POS software providers to find out what their trend predictions and technology development plans are for the year ahead. Top predictions include the increasing integration of mobile devices for ordering and payment (such as the iPod Touch and smart phones), strong investment in enterprise POS offerings, the emergence of POS-integrated social networking applications, and more. The full list of vendors is as follows: