Target Team Switches From Apple To Android

Three years ago, retailer Target officially outfitted employees with Apple gear for stocking and other sales floor-related duties — specifically, iPod Touches in red plastic shells.

But, according to reports in Gizmodo, Target is making a switch. Coming soon, the company will be replacing those Apple iOS devices with Android ones. The Zebra TC51, which runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, has become the confirmed device of choice for “the new MyDevices for store team members chain-wide,” according to an email from Target.

The new devices appear to be popular on Reddit’s r/Target page, an unofficial employee forum The Breakroom. The old iOS devices, however, were not.

“[With] the current iOS MyDevices we have all sorts of issues, connection issues, scanner issues and tons more,” one The Breakroom poster complained.

A  former store manager wrote, “The iPod hardware they used as on-the-floor scanners for employees died quickly and there was no way of swapping in new batteries. There were many hardware issues that came about with the iPods.”

Some Apple goods will stay in the lineup — for example, iOS tablets will still be used for online order pickups, and managers will still have company iPhones. But, when it comes to the sales floor, it will be all about Android — and Target is staffing up on Android developers accordingly.

If it seems like a small change, it is worth noting this shift will affect some 54,000 pieces of merchandise for which Apple will not have the opportunity to provide upgrades. Target’s switch to Android also points to how obsolete the iPod has quickly become.

A Target spokesperson has confirmed that battery life was a major consideration, as was Android’s flexibility for app development.

“As Target rolled out more software functionality to the MyDevices, they began removing the same functionality on the PDAs,” a former Target manager who recently left the company told Gizmodo. “The goal was to completely get rid of the PDAs, but they never completely did because the MyDevices were so unreliable.”