This Week in Payments: Smart Terminals are Taking Over POS, Apple Reaches $3T Valuation and 2022 is Another ‘Year of Crypto’

During this first week of 2022, the news included the future of point of sale (POS), a $3 trillion valuation for Apple and continued developments in crypto. Carl Churchill, owner and managing director at NetPay Solutions Group, joined PYMNTS’ Karen Webster for This Week in Payments.

Smart POS Terminals do More than Handling Payments

Global payments platform Adyen rolled out all-in-one mobile Android POS terminals that eliminate the need for cash registers, barcode scanners and customer-facing displays. It follows several other providers that offer smart terminals, and that’s where the market for face-to-face payments is headed.

Read more: Global Payments Firm Adyen Rolls Out Android POS Units in EU, UK, US

“I think merchants are certainly looking, much the same as we switched from mobile phone to smartphones. We’re looking at what else we can do with the payment terminal,” Churchill said. “A smart terminal device, typically Android-based, is really that platform to do a lot of other things beyond the commodity of payment.”

When choosing a provider of smart terminals, merchants should make sure there are applications available for the devices, he advised. There’s a misconception that every Android app will work on every Android device.

“You have to try and choose a provider that’s got a suite of tools that is really going to be able to support your business beyond that commodity of payment,” Churchill said.

Churchill expects to see more innovations like Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. And as smart terminals gain wider adoption, businesses will gain other capabilities, such as tracking customers’ card details for loyalty, giving them rewards and surveying their opinions. Smart terminals will be to merchants what smartphones are to consumers.

“That is the future of POS,” Churchill said. “It’s a combination of POS-less purchases and then also kind of more interfaces with consumers with POS.”

Apple Keeps Up its Relentless Focus on Innovation

Also during this first week of the new year, Apple became the first company to hit a $3 trillion market cap, tripling its valuation in less than four years. Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to hit $1 trillion in market cap Aug. 2, 2018, then $2 trillion on Aug. 19, 2020.

Also read: Apple Breaks $3T Market Capitalization Barrier

Apple’s innovations became a cornerstone of the connected economy with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store in 2008.

See: On Its Way to a $3 Trillion Valuation, Apple Helped Create the Connected Economy

Churchill noted Apple has created not just customers, but loyal fans who line up outside the door to be the first to get a new product when it is released. At the same time, the company has never become complacent and has kept up a relentless focus on innovation.

“There’s a lot of lessons that we can all take in business from Apple’s evolution is that they are continuously investing in ‘what next’ — that’s really driving the kind of scale of growth that they’ve been seeing,” Churchill said.

The company also brought into the market people who had been afraid of computers. It created a simple-to-use operating system, a good app store and a developer community that created apps for everyone.

“They’ve really been able to drive adoption in a place where it never existed,” Churchill said.

Cryptocurrency Continues to Evolve

A topic that has been in the news not just this week, but any day of any year, is cryptocurrency. During this week, PYMNTS released its own predictions around such about crypto’s move into the mainstream, its increasing accessibility and the increased likelihood of regulatory scrutiny.

Read more: 10 Predictions About What’s Next for Crypto in 2022

Churchill said he thinks the value in crypto is not as a currency but as an opportunity for blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi).

See: DeFi is the New Big Thing in Crypto. But What is It? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

“As a currency? It’s difficult, isn’t it?” Churchill said. “There’s definitely people giving better access to crypto, both in terms of the ability to trade it but also the ability to spend with it. The volatility is a problem for me. How sustainable is it as a payment method?”

He added that regulation will be a huge factor for crypto as well in 2022. This will cover not only taxation but also security, risk assurance and other related factors. New digital currencies from central banks and big traditional banks will be worth watching, too.

Read also: To Win Real-Time Payments Fight, Crypto Must Beat Mainstream FIs, Woo Regulators

“While we all keep talking about it being the year of crypto, I think in 2022, there’s enough advanced projects across the world, across central banks, across big financial players, to get them to show their cards and really get their strategy pinned to the wall in terms of what their intentions are,” Churchill said. “It would be really good to see how that unravels; I’m excited and curious about it.”