The rapid growth of smartphones and tablets has transformed the way merchants accept payments, opening the door for mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) solutions that eliminate the need for traditional checkout hardware. As businesses increasingly sought flexible and affordable payment acceptance options, solution providers began combining mobile applications, card readers, printers, and merchant account services into integrated packages. These offerings allowed small businesses, field service professionals, and mobile merchants to process card payments virtually anywhere while reducing upfront costs compared to conventional POS systems.
The emergence of Android-based tablets created another opportunity for mPOS providers. As Android devices became more powerful and affordable, developers began designing payment applications specifically for the platform, anticipating widespread adoption by merchants. Companies that could offer an end-to-end solution—including payment software, hardware peripherals, payment processing, and merchant services—were positioned to simplify deployment and support. This integrated approach represented an important stage in the evolution of mobile commerce, laying the groundwork for today’s tablet-based POS systems that are commonplace across retail, hospitality, and service industries.
Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. is another outfit that has put together a software, hardware and services package for mobile merchants. The software is available in the Android Marketplace. The hardware, Pocket Spectrum, is a Bluetooth-based magstripe readers and printer combination along the lines of the Blue Bamboo unit. It works in conjunction with the Android Verifier software. Because AMSI is an ISO, the entire package gets bundled. What’s interesting is the focus, in this release, on the Android tablet space, a PR node to the Consumer Electronics Show where a flood of Android-based tablets will be announced.
“With over 600,000 Galaxy Tabs being sold in the first month, we believe that tablets are the next big movement in the mobile industry and we plan on being there for our mobile merchants, even as newer innovations arise on a daily basis,” says Dr. Blaine Leckett, the company’s CTO. Dennis Ideue, the company’s CEO adds “Being the developer of the application, the manufacturer of the printer, and the ISO issuing the merchant accounts allows us to give unprecedented value to our customer base. This solution really differentiates itself from the rest of the market by incorporating a printer. The marketplace-to-date has had to settle for keyed-in email receipts which really slow down the throughput.”
The introduction of integrated Android-based mobile payment solutions reflected the broader shift toward flexible, software-driven payment acceptance. By combining payment applications, Bluetooth-connected hardware, merchant processing, and receipt printing into a single offering, providers sought to give merchants a complete solution that could be deployed quickly and managed more efficiently. Features such as printed receipts also addressed practical operational concerns that were important to many businesses transitioning away from traditional countertop terminals.
Although the mPOS market has evolved considerably since these early Android solutions, the underlying principles remain highly relevant. Modern payment acceptance continues to emphasize mobility, cloud-based software, integrated hardware, and seamless customer experiences across multiple device types. The companies that helped pioneer these early mobile payment ecosystems demonstrated how software and affordable consumer hardware could fundamentally reshape merchant acceptance, influencing the development of today’s sophisticated mobile and tablet-based point-of-sale platforms.
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