Microsoft Could One Day Potentially Open-Source Windows

[vein]

That's funny given I see Android not iOS systems at restaurants like Chili's that are doing tablets, and dedicated systems usually running some form of windows embedded for self-service PoS at places like Jack in the Box, and for that matter places like Walmart, or the local library. in fact I've never seen an iOS device used for this purpose, and what PoS systems I do see transitioning I see going from a mix of things (Usually IBM based actually) to self-service kiosks.

Honestly you're kinda coming off as one of the Apple Loyal...

Actually, I have seen iOS devices used for this purpose a lot here in Sweden. Several restaurants use iOS together with portable bluetooth terminals to be trendy and to have an easy portable solution.

The funny thing is that there are good Android solutions too for this but the restaurants here don't seem to want to adopt these...instead I have seen some local gyms do this... I have no idea why though...

[Luke_Wolf]

Actually, I have seen iOS devices used for this purpose a lot here in Sweden. Several restaurants use iOS together with portable bluetooth terminals to be trendy and to have an easy portable solution.

The funny thing is that there are good Android solutions too for this but the restaurants here don't seem to want to adopt these...instead I have seen some local gyms do this... I have no idea why though...

How I've seen it run here is a cheap no-name tablet per table, equipped to handle credit cards, some will have you order food from the device, others will just use it for a payment kiosk, and advertisement station. I've never seen the servers running around with tablets and it doesn't make any sense to handle it that way, especially not with an iPad, as it doesn't give any efficiency gains (in fact you would arguably lose efficiency by forcing the server to navigate an app), and on top of that you're giving the servers additional crap they have to lug around which they can't really stow properly as even if we were talking <7" Android tablets most people aren't running around in cargo pants.

There's huge efficiency gains to be had meanwhile with per table tablets as that absolves the server of having to take orders and running the cards, meaning that they can focus more on keeping the customers happy, and the customers themselves are inherently happier as you remove the latency of them waiting for a server to get around to ordering their food and remove latency for having their food delivered to them, with the side benefit to the customer that the order itself is taken with greater insured accuracy. I would basically expect any restaurant that doesn't intentionally have a human staff to transfer to these systems in the long run, with fastfood becoming completely automated (if they wanted to any burger place could become completely automated right now actually, the only thing standing in the way of it is that it is still cheaper in the short term to use human labour but that'll change if the minimum wage is moved up to $15/hour).

[vein]

How I've seen it run here is a cheap no-name tablet per table, equipped to handle credit cards, some will have you order food from the device, others will just use it for a payment kiosk, and advertisement station. I've never seen the servers running around with tablets and it doesn't make any sense to handle it that way, especially not with an iPad, as it doesn't give any efficiency gains (in fact you would arguably lose efficiency by forcing the server to navigate an app), and on top of that you're giving the servers additional crap they have to lug around which they can't really stow properly as even if we were talking <7" Android tablets most people aren't running around in cargo pants.

There's huge efficiency gains to be had meanwhile with per table tablets as that absolves the server of having to take orders and running the cards, meaning that they can focus more on keeping the customers happy, and the customers themselves are inherently happier as you remove the latency of them waiting for a server to get around to ordering their food and remove latency for having their food delivered to them, with the side benefit to the customer that the order itself is taken with greater insured accuracy. I would basically expect any restaurant that doesn't intentionally have a human staff to transfer to these systems in the long run, with fastfood becoming completely automated (if they wanted to any burger place could become completely automated right now actually, the only thing standing in the way of it is that it is still cheaper in the short term to use human labour but that'll change if the minimum wage is moved up to $15/hour).

I agree with you on the fact that eliminating human resources from the serving would be a good thing (all the times I get a bad order...*sigh*). I would support that kind of restaurant in a second.

But to give you an example of how I have seen this work here, I will tell you how it went last night when I was at a chinese restaurant with my wife:

When we entered the restaurant, the waitress appointed us to a table and gave took our order with pen&paper. Then she went back tot he ECR at the bar disk in the middle of the restaurant and entered the order. After we had finished the dinenr we asked for the bill and the waitress asked if I was going to pay with card. As I said yes, she went to the bar disk and fetched an iphone with a bluetooth terminal connected to it on one tray and what I could see, she had an app running with a map over the restaurant, she pushed our table and the payment was sent to terminal automatically. I entered my card and payed. And the receipt came out from a bluetooth receipt printer that she also had on the tray.

I think that this is not the most efficient way of handling these things but this is something that is used right now. What I want to illustrate with this example is that what we engineers (I assume you are one too) think is a good way of handling things is probably never going to the way restaurants handle things (or maybe in some cases it will... anyway..). Since this part is not a big part of the puzzle that is needed for a restaurant to be successful... for iOS devices to be used for POS devices, it is probably enough that the restaurant owner likes apple... (and that the chef makes good food )

[Luke_Wolf]

I agree with you on the fact that eliminating human resources from the serving would be a good thing (all the times I get a bad order...*sigh*). I would support that kind of restaurant in a second.

But to give you an example of how I have seen this work here, I will tell you how it went last night when I was at a chinese restaurant with my wife:

When we entered the restaurant, the waitress appointed us to a table and gave took our order with pen&paper. Then she went back tot he ECR at the bar disk in the middle of the restaurant and entered the order. After we had finished the dinenr we asked for the bill and the waitress asked if I was going to pay with card. As I said yes, she went to the bar disk and fetched an iphone with a bluetooth terminal connected to it on one tray and what I could see, she had an app running with a map over the restaurant, she pushed our table and the payment was sent to terminal automatically. I entered my card and payed. And the receipt came out from a bluetooth receipt printer that she also had on the tray.

I think that this is not the most efficient way of handling these things but this is something that is used right now.

Yeah, that's a really inefficient way of running that. Ideally a sit down restaurant should be automated like this:

• You walk in and the Maitre d assigns you a table using a kiosk showing which tables are currently occupied through use of weight sensors in the chairs
• the table is flagged for serving, and shows up as occupied the moment you sit down.
• A server comes by and drops off menus, and demonstrates the usage of the tablet by having it passed around the table, with users selecting what drinks they'd like which is then sent off to the central server, and the server goes off to fetch the drinks
• when they return a timer is set for ~5-10 minutes or so to give you time to look over your menu undisturbed,
  • if an order is not made within this period the table is flagged to be checked on by the server.
• In any case you decide on your order and enter it into the tablet, this information is sent to the restaurant's central server which then tells the chef what to make and gives you an estimated wait time based
• eventually the chef finishes your dish and marks your food as ready
• the server is told the food is ready and brings it to you
• omnomnomnomnom
• at various points during the omnoming you need a refill of your drink or appetizers and hit the appropriate buttons on the tablet to flag as such, or you might order additional items through the tablet
• eventually you finish, and indicate as such on the tablet, and it calculates your total and allows you to set a tip
• You swipe your card through the card scanner or if you pay with cash you indicate as such and it flags down the server
• You get up, the weight sensors notice that everyone is gone and marks the table as in need of cleaning
• the busboy comes in and cleans up the table and flags it as open when they're finished

you can even have a 15-20 minute timer if a human ranged weight isn't detected in any of the chairs for the table and the bill hasn't been paid to flag that people may have ate without paying.

What I want to illustrate with this example is that what we engineers (I assume you are one too) think is a good way of handling things is probably never going to the way restaurants handle things (or maybe in some cases it will... anyway..). Since this part is not a big part of the puzzle that is needed for a restaurant to be successful... for iOS devices to be used for POS devices, it is probably enough that the restaurant owner likes apple... (and that the chef makes good food )

I'm a software dev, and yeah companies can do some real boneheaded things in practice, but at the same time the second wave of automation is at hand, and other than end of the world scenarios, nothing is going to stop it. The next 10-20 years is going to be a very entertaining, if rather bumpy ride.

[curaga]

Perhaps you'd like to read Manna by Marshall Brain? A free book about this topic, starting exactly with fast food automation.