Bixolon's B-gate Manages Peripherals For Tablet Solutions
Bixolon is bringing a solution to market that answers the question of how to connect multiple peripherals to a tablet point of sale (POS) solution. John Choi, product manager at Bixolon, demonstrated the B-gate at Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) RetailNOW 2015 held Aug. 2 to 5 in Orlando, FL.
Choi says this solution addresses your merchants IT clients’ pain point of wanting a sleek, mobile POS solution, but sacrificing the appearance of the solution and some mobility by tethering it to peripherals. Choi adds that tablets don’t have a many options for connecting to multiple devices, so your merchant IT clients could have to invest in Bluetooth peripherals that can increase the per-terminal cost by a few hundred dollars.
Bixolon created the B-gate to manage peripherals for tablet solutions. The B-gate supports scanners, payment input devices such as PIN pads and card readers, printers, customer displays, other tablets, cash drawers, and scales.
The B-gate communicates to the tablet via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi — the tablet is not tethered to anything else — and this reduces the cost per terminal by eliminating the need to purchase Bluetooth peripherals, as well as cleaning up clutter from cables. Choi says, furthermore, the B-gate can improve installation and development time. With the B-gate, developers will no longer have to work with an SDK for each peripheral — all you need to do is use the B-gate’s SDK (iOS or Android) to integrate your software, and the B-gate controls all other devices.