The evolution of EPOS tells the story of how shops and venues take payment. Point of sale has changed more in the last twenty years than in the century before it. What started as a mechanical drawer with a bell has become a connected, touch-driven platform that runs stock, loyalty, payments, kitchen routing and reporting at the same time. Here’s how EPOS has evolved, and where HiStone hardware such as the HM638N mobile EPOS and the HK960 Era all-in-one fit into the story.
The evolution of EPOS: from cash register to electronic till
The first cash registers appeared in the late nineteenth century. They were mechanical machines designed to record a sale and keep the takings secure, and for decades that was all a till needed to do. Electronic cash registers arrived in the 1970s and added simple reporting, price look-ups and receipt printing, but each machine was still largely a stand-alone box behind the counter.
The PC-based EPOS era
The real shift came when point of sale moved onto PC hardware. Electronic point of sale (EPOS) software could now share data across tills, track stock in real time, manage staff and push sales figures to a back office. Touchscreens replaced keyboards, receipt printers, cash drawers and barcode scanners became peripherals, and hardware choice started to matter as much as the software running on it.
B-Spoke Systems has been part of that journey since 2003, supplying point-of-sale hardware to resellers, software houses and businesses across the UK and Ireland. If you’re new to the subject, our guide What is an EPOS system? covers the basics.
All-in-one terminals: power and presentation at the counter
As EPOS software grew more demanding, the hardware had to keep up. The modern all-in-one terminal combines the PC, touchscreen and connections in a single, compact unit that looks at home on a premium counter. The HiStone HK960 Era is a good example: an 11th generation Intel Core i3 processor, a 15-inch Full HD true-flat capacitive touchscreen, up to 16GB of memory and a metallic housing, with options for a second customer display, fingerprint reader, magnetic stripe reader and RFID.
That level of performance matters because a single terminal now handles loyalty, integrated payments, stock control and kitchen orders simultaneously, often at the busiest moment of the day. You can read more in our HiStone HK960 Era overview or browse the full range of HiStone all-in-one EPOS systems.
Mobile EPOS: the till leaves the counter
The next step was to free the till from the counter altogether. Table service, queue busting, click-and-collect and stock checks all work better when staff can take the point of sale to the customer. The HiStone HM638N is built for exactly that. It’s an 11.6-inch Full HD tablet terminal that sits in a dock at the counter and lifts away on a magnetic mount when staff need to move.
It comes with a 3-track MSR card reader and front and rear cameras as standard, with an optional 2D barcode scanner, under-screen NFC and a fingerprint reader built into the power button. Powered by Intel N-series or Core i3 processors with up to 16GB memory, Wi-Fi 6 and Windows 11, it’s one device that works as both a fixed and a mobile till. See the HiStone mobile EPOS range for the full line-up.
Self-service and the connected store
Customers are now comfortable serving themselves, and EPOS has expanded to match. Self-checkout and ordering kiosks reduce queues and free staff for higher-value work, while kitchen display systems replace paper tickets in hospitality. Cloud back offices, integrated card payments and online ordering mean every device in the business shares the same data. Our articles on self-checkout and HiStone self-checkout kiosks explore this in more depth.
What comes next for EPOS
The direction of travel is clear: more mobility, more self-service and more data. Retailers and hospitality operators increasingly expect one platform across counter, tablet, kiosk and web, and they expect hardware that’s reliable, easy to deploy and supported locally. That’s why hardware choice still matters, even in a cloud-first world.
Talk to B-Spoke Systems
B-Spoke Systems is the UK distributor for HiStone EPOS hardware, with stock held in Leicester, ISO 9001 certification and technicians who can image, configure and asset-tag units before dispatch. If you’re a reseller or software house planning your next deployment, build a quote with our EPOS configurator or contact the team.