Two point of sale terminal companies are touting portable, wireless payment systems for the restaurant, hospitality, and service industries.
Vendors say wireless terminals are not yet widely used in this country but are starting to take off, because of the convenience of taking the terminal directly to the customer and increasing consumer awareness of card fraud.
Hypercom Corp. of Phoenix unveiled its M4100 Blade on Wednesday at the Electronic Transactions Association trade show in Las Vegas. The device, which includes a printer and a roll of 200 receipts, tips the scales at 7.1 ounces. It accepts credit and PIN debit cards and has an optional contactless reader. It also accepts smart cards using the Europay, MasterCard, Visa format.
Customers sign their names on a touch-sensitive screen that can be read "even in Arizona sunlight," said Ed Mastrangelo, the director of wireless products for Hypercom.
The M4100 Blade offers all the features as Hypercom's countertop counterparts, and though it is aimed mainly at the U.S. restaurant industry, there are other markets where it could be used, he said.
"By using cellular coverage, we can hit route sales, delivery drivers, taxis, limousines - anyone looking to accept payments where wire connectivity does not exist," Mr. Mastrangelo said.
Gwenn Bezard, a research director for Aite Group LLC of Boston, said skimming fraud - stealing account information by running cards through a special reader - can be a problem at restaurants. "The waiter disappears and comes back five minutes later, but you don't know what happened to your card."
Hypercom already sells a wireless, portable device, the M2100, in foreign countries, and Mr. Mastrangelo said his company plans to eventually make the device available in the United States. It does not have a touch screen for signatures, does not accept contactless cards, and is slightly heavier than the M4100 Blade.
VeriFone Holdings Inc. also offers a hand-held device for restaurants. The Vx 670 device accepts credit and PIN debit cards and prints out an itemized receipts for people to sign. VeriFone announced the device's development in November and said this week that it will begin shipping it to U.S. restaurants next month.
The leading wireless terminal maker in the United States is Lipman Electronics Engineering Ltd., an Israeli company that VeriFone is acquiring. The deal, announced last week, is expected to close by October.
Paul Rasori, the vice president of marketing and product management for VeriFone, said Thursday that the Vx 670 can reduce the number of trips a waiter must make to the table.
"Anything that shaves off seconds during payment transactions increases their sales," Mr. Rasori said.
Because the Vx 670 also accepts PIN debit cards, which few U.S. table service restaurants accept today, it can also reduce merchants' interchange fees, he said. (PIN debit processing fees are lower than those for signature debit.)
Mr. Rasori predicted that consumers would learn to like the convenience of having a waiter coming to the table with a hand-held terminal. Payments would be completed faster, and the handheld systems address consumers' growing fear of identity theft and card fraud, he said.
"The whole notion of not having to give up your card, we think, would be very well accepted by consumers," Mr. Rasori said.
Initially, some customers might be confused by the idea of paying at the table, he said, "but once they get used to it, we don't see a big consumer adoption issue at all."
VeriFone is talking to several well-known chain companies about using the Vx 670, Mr. Rasori said, but he would not name them.
Mr. Bezard said paying at the table is very common at restaurants in France, where the EMV standard has been used for several years. (EMV cards require a PIN, even for credit transactions.)
"It was not very convenient [for customers] to get up and go to the counter terminal and enter the PIN," he said. "It was far more efficient for the restaurant to have those portable wireless devices so waiters were able to present the device to customers sitting at the tables."
However, whether U.S. restaurants will accept portable terminals remains unclear, Mr. Bezard said. "The pitch is probably going to revolve around security, because more and more people are aware of security problems such as skimming."
