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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
New Solutions Expand Opportunities in Vending
CHICAGO, Oct. 15 -- USA Technologies Inc, (OTC Bulletin Board: USTT - News) will demonstrate and display its portfolio of Intelligent VendingŪ, energy management and networked and wireless offerings at the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) National Expo at the McCormick Center in Chicago this week.
The Company will also be supported at NAMA for the first time by some of its key business relationships, including MEI, ZiLOG and AT&T who in recent months have signed various deals with the Company to pursue sales opportunities together.
Headlining the range of offerings will be USA Technologies' next generation of Intelligent Vending technology, including the new lower cost Generation 5 e-PortŪ developed together with ZiLOG Inc, as well as the new "e-Port on a chip" incorporated in ZiLOG's award winning eZ80Acclaim!(TM) family of flash microcontrollers (MCU's).
"This will be our strongest ever offering of technology that's not only going to change the vending industry, but influence and simplify the way the world does business and communicates," said George R. Jensen, Chairman of the Board and CEO, USA Technologies. "We also are going to be showing entirely new concepts in vending and kiosk technology that we believe will one day be pervasive worldwide, allowing consumers the ability to purchase just about any product or service, wherever they may be, using a variety of transaction modes, from cash through credit cards and wireless operated PDA's and cellular phone technology."
Among the technology on display will be a Motorola vending machine that vends cellular phone accessories, as well as the Sony PictureStation(TM) that develops digital photos and uses USA Technologies' cashless transaction software to allow credit/debit card payment.
MEI, the world's leading manufacturer of payment systems, will be represented at NAMA to promote its licensing of USA Technologies' Intellectual Property to bring a turn-key cash and credit card payment system to the vending market. Under the agreement, MEI licensed USA Technologies' intellectual property so operators can connect to USALive(TM), USA Technologies' network for services and credit card transaction capability.
MEI and USA Technologies together will offer customers a new payment method and greater convenience to improve the consumers' vending experience. The new combined product incorporates the MEI series 2000 combo acceptor consisting of the industry leading MEI series 2000 bill acceptor with a debris-resistant, swipe-style credit card reader. Credit card transactions and communications to USALive will be handled by the MEI EASITRAX remote data port.
Another strategic partner is ZiLOG, Inc., who integrated USA Technologies' e-Port software into its eZ80Acclaim! MCU to strategically expand into other application areas, such as networking distributed assets and innovative distributed applications. With the eZ80 Acclaim! MCU, businesses can install the e-Port networking capability into every day commercial appliances with ease, and at a very affordable price. And because of low development costs and ease of implementation, the "e-Port on a chip" has the potential to cost effectively network every day devices.
The technology the vending industry is expected to be quite interested in is the next generation, more affordable VendingMiserŪ VM2IQ(TM). This new energy management device from USA Technologies has the capability of accelerating higher sales of the Company's energy management solutions within the global vending industry.
The VM2IQ is designed to reduce energy consumption in vending machines by one third, and because it's smaller, it will be offered for less cost. It can be installed quickly and easily into existing refrigerated vending machines to produce immediate savings. The VM2IQ comes with additional features, including technology that keeps the marketing lights on, allowing vending machine operators to continue merchandising their products while reducing energy consumption.
Another strategic business partner featured in the USA Technologies display booth will be AT&T,who in recent weeks announced that USA Technologies will provide nationwide availability of its e-Port wireless credit card processing and non-cash transaction services via the AT&T Wireless GSM(TM)/GPRS Network. The AT&T Wireless-powered USA Technologies solution will make wireless credit card payment technology and networking of distributed assets available to a variety of industries, including vending, entertainment, hospitality, and kiosks.
The partnership between USA Technologies and AT&T means vending companies, kiosk operators and others will have a viable way to accept a variety of electronic payments, overcoming the need to incur the expense of installing a dedicated telephone line. Businesses will have greater flexibility in where they place their machines, and end-user customers will have the convenience of an assortment of payment options.
The G5 e-Port is believed to be the world's first 'one-piece' design for implementation of cashless vending. It can be installed into a vending machine in five minutes, or less. It also comes with wireless connectivity, instantly enabling a vending location to accept credit/debit card transactions. As with earlier versions of the e-Port device, IBM will host USALive(TM), the company's transaction processing and data network. WithUSALive Online(TM), USA Technologies' customers have real-time, web-based access to sales (cash and credit), inventory and maintenance data from their vending machines. To see the simple installation of the G5 e-Port System, go to http://www.usatech.com/news/usa_2004_10_07video.php.
About USA Technologies:
USA Technologies is a leader in the networking of distributed assets, wireless non-cash transactions, associated financial/network services and energy management. USA Technologies provides networked credit card and other non-cash systems in the vending, commercial laundry, hospitality and digital imaging industries. USA Technologies is an IBM Business Partner and an inaugural member of the Sprint Enabling Application Service Provider Program for e-commerce. The Company has marketing agreements with MEI, Unilever and ZiLOG Corporation. http://www.usatech.com
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