Apple Store Finally Dumping WinCE-Inducing Payment Systems?

Yeah. Apple Stores use what appear to be Soviet-era Windows CE handsets from Symbol to process credit card transactions on the floor. It's their secret shame. All that beautiful, elegant, perfectly balanced mobile technology in the iPhone and the iPod touch and their front-facing staff is stuck using devices straight out of 1960s garage sci-fi.

Well, the times they may finally be changing. Apple Insider reports that:

Instead of introducing a dedicated [point of sale] sibling to the iPhone and iPod touch family, Apple instead worked to expand the iPhone platform to suit the needs of developers. With iPhone 3.0, that includes new support for working with peripheral devices over USB through the Dock Connector and wirelessly using Bluetooth.

Seems Apple will be transitioning to an attachment for the iPhone or iPod touch that lets them replace their aging WinCE fleet with their own, homegrown, multi-touch tech. Win/win for both marketing and sales.

The only question left for us is, what to do with all those about-to-be-obsolete WinCE boxes?

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.