Why is the iPad on every retailer’s mind right now?  And not just those of retailers, but at trade fairs, hotels, hospitals and even church communities you’ll see tablets being implemented by the thousands.

Bouncepad customers like Marks & Spencer, 02 and Douglas Perfumery love the iPad for its small footprint, high flexibility and, of course, the flawless interaction experience over traditional kiosk systems. Some fashion brands are installing iPads to align their brand with the great Apple success story. Other customers simply love the affordability. But is it simply the hardware price that makes iPads tempting to retailers?

There are many good reasons to consider iPads for self-service applications, but the biggest one is this: Choice of great content, mature business apps and fantastic kiosk solutions.

The iPad is fast becoming a revolution in retail for the simple reason that content innovation has suddenly become cheap, and business trials as well as finished solutions are mushrooming in a range of sectors.

iPad till systems are one such area of innovation, already spreading across California. Bouncepad is currently helping London’s award winning Kaffeine coffee bar to install a till system replacing traditional hardware. Kaffeine chose ISIS POS as a flexible and cloud-based system to take orders and manage the shop.

Multichannel strategy is another big driver for iPad systems. Shoppers with great IT in their homes and pockets are expecting rich information in highstreet shops as well. Ipads can feature catalogue content, product education and stock availability in a friendly and highly usable format.

Companies like Yooba, Global Bay and Mobiten have created elegant and extremely versatile systems to publish highly interactive content to iPads deployed in retail. The richness of information and ease of implementation, paired with the iPad’s affordability is creating an attractive business case for many IT directors.

Customer surveys and lead capture present great opportunities too. Companies like Avius are already helping the hospitality and attraction industry with iPad based systems. Those can even be extended with social media links, promotions and competition sign ups, presenting a great business case.

Highly specialist apps are fast emerging as well. Rentmaxx is launching iPad-based ski rental solutions for alpine resorts. One of Bouncepad’s customers is specializing in info kiosks for property marketing suits and Sangen Systems has recently launched a niche app for opticians: customers can snap pictures of their new specs with the iPad camera and share them via e-mail or Facebook. A great CRM opportunity.

These niche applications would not have been feasible to develop for most retailers until now. But the combination of easy distribution, affordable hardware and secure mounting solutions like the Bouncepad is creating a whole new market for retail innovations. For multi-nationals as well as sole traders.

The next wave of development will see hardware integration to extend the Apps even further. For example, Bouncepad has recently completed a large RFID enabled project for ITN International who create “Touch N’Go” event solutions for visitor registration.

Great apps would be worthless if the end users wouldn’t touch them. But thanks to the consumer success of iPhones and iPads, literally hundreds of millions people have learned to love the seamless user experience of iOS devices, and won’t settle for less.

The Bouncepad was designed to extend this great user experience into the physical design of shops and exhibitions, requiring dozens of different mounting options that are secure and yet work with Apple’s much loved iPad design to compose a well rounded and robust solution.

Who would have thought that the iPad, this quintessential consumer product, is now becoming a serious business proposition? Apple is finally waking up to this opportunity and actively promoting the tablets to corporate customers and for public use.

And if any more proof were needed, dozens of iPads are now used in Apple’s own flagship stores around the world as product info points. What a great endorsement for the future of iPad kiosks!

This article was originally published in Kiosk Europe magazine, September 2011.