Escalate Retail demos Pocket Kiosk

Escalate Retail has introduced a novel approach to increasing in-store purchases with what it's calling its Pocket Kiosk', a device that amounts to a retail kiosk running on the customer's own smartphone, reports Self-Service World.

In addition to rolling out its immersive, in-store kiosk, Escalate has demoed a new application that allows shoppers using smartphones to go to a dedicated URL that turns their smartphone into a retail information and purchasing kiosk they can carry around with them while they shop.

The new kiosks are part of Escalate's 'all-channel commerce' solution that helps retailers leverage their brands and inventory across a wide spectrum of channels, from social media sites to in-store kiosks.

Following a successful pilot test programme, McDonald's is preparing to roll out in-restaurant kiosks for the ordering and payment of food, says NACS.

The roll-out will occur across Europe with as many as 2 000 kiosks, where customers can customise orders, make a card payment, and receive a printed ticket whose number they can monitor on a screen above the service counter.

The kiosk programme was started two years ago by hardware and software provider Wincor Nixdorf, which included screens, keypads, card payments, and printers. Its focus was designing a standardised device that was flexible enough to use in as many as 40 different countries.

On the heels of the surprising news that Nokia's Ovi Store delivers one million downloads per day, mobile ad network Greystripe is supporting Nokia's app store. Although Greystripe supported Java downloads before, this is the first time they will be supporting Java apps in the Ovi store, says the Washington Post.

Greystripe has created an automated self-service Web-based portal for developers to ad-enable their Java/Symbian apps. Developers can upload all of their fully developed mobile app ports, while the ad client is automatically merged with their application.

The company's ad network will display pre- and post-roll full-screen ads within the app. Currently, Greystripe supports over 1 400 Java handset models, in addition to iPhone and Android.