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Posts with tag vending

The soul of an iPod vending machine



Those ZoomSystems iPod vending machines that we once gently mocked are both more successful and more ubiquitous than we thought they'd be. Still, it seems they aren't flawless. Reader & iPod shopper Kristopher decided to give one of the machines at his local mall a try; unfortunately, as soon as he started using the touchscreen, a familiar error screen appeared, and then... well, you can see what's underneath the pretty surface.

Sure, lots of retail kiosk applications use XP, but c'mon -- for an iPod sales system, shouldn't Mac OS X be the first choice?

[That's a joke, in case our visitors from Digg are confused. While there are plenty of Point Of Sale systems for the Mac, I don't actually know of one that's intended for vending-machine deployment, and even a Mac Mini is a bit high-end for the build cost of vending machines. That aside, it's probably not the best call to go with XP for a vend setup either...]

iPod vending machines...succeed?

When I first heard of the whole buy-an-iPod vending-machine concept, I dismissed it as yet another bad idea that had to play itself out. I couldn't imagine anyone ever actually buying an iPod at one of these machines. Looks like I was way wrong.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (subscription) that a single iPod vending machine sold a thousands of dollars worth of iPods in one month. A VP of Business Traveler Services is quoted as saying, "We've done about $55,000 in a month in gross sales just for the one on Concourse A. This is becoming the future for some high-end products in places like airports where space is at a premium." If you're willing to drop $349 plus tax, the iPod is yours. And it's a change from all those salty treats you normally get at a vending machine.

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