The Tablet Comes to Our Table
Our lives seem to change as quickly as technology evolves. It occurs so fast we hardly seem to notice. It wasn’t that long ago that when you’d purchase something on your credit card the clerk would have to make a carbon imprint of the card. Today credit cards can be scanned almost anywhere if you have an attachment for your tablet computer.
Making credit card purchases is not the only way the tablet has changed business. It has in some cases fundamentally influenced the way many businesses operate. Here are a few examples of companies that have come up with some innovative uses for tablets.
At De Santos, a high-end Italian restaurant in New York City’s West Village, the members of the wait staff use iPads to take orders and swipe credit cards. The hope is that this will streamline the ordering process reducing mistakes.
Puma has developed an interactive tool called The Creative Factory for stores in Asia, Africa, and Europe. At these stations customers use specially programmed iPads to design their own unique sneakers, see shoes designs from across the globe, and also learn a little about the other designers. People around the globe are connecting though creativity and footwear thanks to Puma.
The DeKalb Market in Brooklyn has a new addition called SHOPBOX. People can shop at SHOPBOX but it has no store clerks and no storefront! SHOPBOX is made up of shipping containers with an iPads mounted on the ends. Shoppers register on the iPads then text the item number they would like to purchase to the phone number that is printed on the glass on each SHOPBOX. The item is then shipped to a location of their choice. This definitely redefines window-shopping!
As tablet technology improves more innovative uses will be developed. It’s not unthinkable to imagine having a wait staff may be obsolete in the future or that future generations have no use for a mall. Change is the nature of the world and it seems the more advanced we become, the faster things change. So let’s sit back and watch things become easier due to technology and one day we might just get those hovercrafts promised in science fiction movies.
