Review of the Top Credit Card Machine Manufacturer's

New Jersey May 28, 2005 - In the past ten years we have seen many changes in the way American Businesses take payments at the register.  How many of us could have imagined ten years ago, that today we make 30% of our purchases off the internet or that debit cards would have a Visa/MasterCard logo on them?.  Now businesses have the opportunity to process electronic transactions affordably with top of line equipment.  Ten years ago, true electronic based transactions were for larger businesses, but now they are available to anyone with a small amount of investment capital.  But who are the major manufacturers of the latest and greatest equipment, and what is the long and short in their market.

Currently, there are 3 major terminal manufacturers, 2 major check conversion manufacturers, and several other smaller manufacturers that dabble in one aspect or another in electronic payment processing.  Verifone and Hypercom seem to be running neck and neck for the lead, while Lipman, makers of the Nurit Terminals, trails in a distant third.  The smaller, non-consequential runners up are Thales, Linkpoint, and Ingenico.  Keep in mind that these are the manufacturers for credit card swipe machines.

Verifone, showing the most promise as a mainstay manufacturer was one of the first to hit the market with credit card terminals. The oldest one I can remember is the Zon Jr., a small square box with very little to offer, except having the ability to attach a large bulky printer to it.  Bypassing comments about their Tranz Series or second generation, the heavy mover today is the Omni Series.  The Omni 3750 being one of the top of the line terminals today with Internal PIN pad, SmartCard ready, and a whopping 4Mb of memory, these terminals are sleek and aesthetic.  But, get ready for Verifone's move into the wireless realm.  The Verifone Vx610 is getting the talk of the town coming in CDMA, GPRS, or Wi-Fi, making this wireless terminal almost unlimited in its wireless coverage.

Hypercom, tied neck and neck with Verifone as an industry leader, has the advantage of long lasting, tried and true terminals.  The T7 Plus is one of their best terminals as far as dependability and durability, but there are a couple of downfalls to the Hypercom terminals.  Hypercom's ICE Series with Internal PIN Pad, SmartCard, Easy Touch Key Pad, and Signature Capture makes it a fantastic terminal for the short run, but daily wear and tear on the key pad has a tendency to wear the terminal out.  In a multi-lane or supermarket environment, these terminals take a beating.  The Optimum Series, has the capability for Hypercoms Multi-lane stores, but it's not a terminal, it's a PIN pad that interfaces t the cash register.  The engineers at Hypercom keep coming out with the same design with different features: all the Hypercom models are a box, and their brown.  I would love to see them come out with a terminal that is more ergonomic, in different colors, and smaller to put on the counter-top.  As a test, I think Hypercom should make a terminal in a bright blue, and see how many they sell.  While they're at it, they may want to redesign their logo, something a little more fitting to the new millennium.   

Lipman, makers of the Nurit Credit Card Machine, are coming into some rough seas.  They are the number one manufacturer of wireless credit card machines, but for how long.  Cellular services are constantly changing, and it looks as though they may be faced with upgrading their modems, but they better do it quick.  CDMA and GPRS are taking over, so now is the time for them to get moving in that direction and completely abandon all their Motient and Cingular machines.  The other thing they have to do, is keep compliant with all the change Visa/MasterCard compliance codes.  The 3020 was a great terminal, but now it's not quite up to industry standards.  The Nurit 8000 wireless was a good step  but when that terminal first came out, it was a nightmare, and still has some fits here and there, but definitely not as often.  The 2085 is still widely purchased, but why purchase that when you can buy a Hypercom or Verifone for just a little more, with more capabilities.  Lipman had a good run while it lasted, but I think you're going to start seeing the company disappear little by little, especially when the Verifone Vx610 hits the market.

Thales has the Talento T1 in the U.S. market, but this terminal never really took off, and it's been around for years.  Word on the street is that Thales is pulling out of the U.S. market altogether and heading back to Europe.  Two out of three distributors that we use, no longer carry New T1's, but they have plenty of refurbished in stock.

Ingenico are great makers of check readers and imagers, but they make cheap quality credit card terminals.  Ingenico needs to stick to what they do best, check conversion.  Their readers and imagers are great to interface to almost any terminal, very affordable, and most of all dependable.  The only problem I see, how much longer are people going to write checks at the checkout counter.

LinkPoint terminals are still preferred by some processors for their merchants.  The terminals are dependable, but there are better terminals available.  That's about all that needs to or can be said about LinkPoint.

Looking back ten years ago, we used to go out and buy a computer, the old beige box that sat on your desktop, and then it was great.  Now we expect more out of our computers: towers that hide in desks and come, not only in different colors, but clear colors that light up.  Computers now decorate a room or office space.  It may sound funny to talk about colors and style, but our credit card manufacturers have the ability to dress up your store, make something that could be more pleasing to the eye.  We buy everything based on the way it looks: our cars, cell phones, computers, so why not credit card terminals.  More importantly, we need to analyze the way technology is expanding.  What works today, may not work at all tomorrow because it has been phased out.  I told you earlier that one of Verifone's first terminals was the Zon Jr., but I don't know anyone now that can program one for use in a store today.  Technology has made the Zon Jr. obsolete, and many other terminals have met the same fate as the Zon.

The skinny of it all, when you look through the list, is stick to what is going to stick around.  Hypercom and Verifone have been around for a long time, and they look as though they will be around a lot longer.  They have grown as technology has grown, and their products have been proven to be effective and dependable.  If you could combine the two companies, I think you would almost have the perfect credit card machine manufacturer.

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