Research: June 2005

According to a new study released today by IHL Consulting Group, the point-of-sale (POS) terminal market for North American restaurateurs and hospitality providers continued to boom in 2004 with 11 percent annual unit growth and spending of $2.3 billion on POS hardware, software and services.

"2004 was an outstanding year of unit growth for vendors, particularly in table service restaurants and quick service/ fast food restaurants," explains Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting Group. "Looking ahead, our research indicates that every segment of the hospitality industry will increase its POS purchases in 2005 over 2004 as hospitality providers upgrade to more reliable and easier to use systems."

Shipments of Linux-based POS units increased 73 percent year to year but still represent only 4 percent of the overall market. According to Buzek, this is expected to rise dramatically in future years. Shipments of Windows 2000/XP-based terminals represented 70 percent of the overall market. Windows 9x/CE represented another 22 percent of the shipments for a total of 92 percent of the market.