Product: Optimum M4100 Blade
Company: Hypercom Corp.

A new handheld POS terminal from Hypercom Corp. is sleek, speedy and sans wires. What more could mobile merchants want from their POS device? Actually, a lot more: What about small size, security and signature capability? Fortunately, Hypercom has got it covered.

At the Electronic Transactions Association's 2006 Annual Meeting & Expo in April, the manufacturer showcased the Optimum M4100 Blade and captured everyone's attention.

The product resembles a kind of POS terminal/mobile phone/PDA/PIN-pad hybrid, and it is many of those things.

The Blade is a lightweight, palm-sized, portable POS terminal capable of processing magnetic strip credit, debit (both PIN-based and signature-based), gift and prepaid cards as well as chip-based cards (such as for contactless payments).

Signature capture is available with special software, which orients the screen to landscape mode and gives cardholders more room to sign their names. A Stylus pen for signing is built in, too.

Wireless options are covered

The product offers high-speed transactions using its 200 megahertz 32-bit Intel XScale processor and 24 megabytes of memory.

Communication options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for shorter distance data transmissions (local area networks or LANs) and general packet radio service (GPRS) for wide area networks, or WANs.

The Blade has a 240 x 320 pixel, 64,000-color, high-contrast touch screen display, which can be clearly viewed both indoors and outdoors. Its color coded hard-key keypad is splash and water resistant, illuminates, and is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Modular design

A newer trend among POS terminal design is the concept of modularity, which provides merchants the ability to add or remove applications, memory and hardware when needed. For example, Hypercom's new device has an optional contactless reader, docking station and clip-on sheet printer. The printer can print up to 12 lines per second. It uses fanfold paper instead of a paper roll (no more bulk) and can output 100 two-receipt transactions per paper packet.

As far as security is concerned, the Blade meets the global security standards, including EMV and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for PIN entry devices. It also incorporates triple data encryption (3DES) and Master/Session DUKPT key management to protect against fraud.

Hypercom says the terminal is compatible with its standard software and countertop capabilities and provides a way to migrate from Hypercom proprietary applications. The catch? It's not yet available. The company is planning a release date of October 2006 in the United States. Stay tuned.

Hypercom Corp.
877-497-3726 (inside the United States)
www.hypercom.com