Can't keep adding new features to outdated equipment

I'd like to know what the company intends to do being that the iHeld (iPod Touch) devices are well past their useful lifespan. At this point, they are garbage. Without the cradle, they are worth maybe $10 on eBay.

It doesn't help that they keep adding more and more features to everything. Look at the POS software running on the IBM registers (which are 15-20 years old) as an example. Ever since they migrated from the fairly reliable DOS-like software to the GUI touchscreen interface, the registers became slow and unresponsive. They also crash frequently. The same thing is happening with the SNCs and iPads and many other systems. SHC IT keeps rolling out "improvements" which really end up being a downgrade.

Not only that, Apple no longer produces an iPod Touch. Uh-oh. So even if the company had the cash to deploy newer devices, the entire SHC Connect/SNC/ShopSears codebase would have to be rewritten, unless they wanted to buy unlocked iPhones, which are at least $500 a pop. Otherwise, they would end up moving everything to Android or would simply go proprietary (Symbol guns).

I am shocked that there are stores still using the Palm. Palm devices withered away around 2005, I think. How deeper does the outdated IT equipment situation go? Are there dual processor Pentium III servers in active use at the datacenter? Do some stores still have the original 1980s registers that really run DOS and have the small old CRT monitors? Any offices at corporate on a NetWare network? Any stores using an old physical dumb terminal for Store Systems/NPS/RIM? Speaking of which, how many gaping security holes are lurking because of the outdated systems?

Maybe a liquidation of the rest of the company will make obsolete equipment of no concern.

Bumped from @PKEerLx-1exa. Makes an excellent point.

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The iPads were an an attempt to get around the fact that it would cost too much to rebuild the register infrastructure. Needless to say, it didn't really work.

This is basically what my first post was saying, but with a lot less detail.

Hah, replacing registers. My Kmart store has had maybe 3-4 working registers up front out of a dozen for the last year, and despite numerous calls to Support Central and even having had a tech come out to look at them, nothing has changed.

In other words. Sears/Kmart tech is too old that once it breaks down it will be too obsolete to fix it and that the company is too damn broke to invest into new tech. So we're boned either way.

Actually the apple devices have more than enough power to handle the things sears needs it to handle. The registers are a different case entirely. The registers bottleneck the entire process because most of the apps created for the iPad have to also be compatible with technology from 30-40 years ago. The iPads are literally 100+ times more powerful than the registers, despite the size difference.

I was an engineering student when I worked at sears and the fact that they were able to even pull something like this off kinda blew my mind. The iPads are slow because the software can't take advantage of the full potential of the ipads. Probably not even close. The registers are slow because they're probably being pushed to their absolute limits. Unfortunately replacing the registers isn't a simple task. I'd imagine you would have to rewire the store as well as the entire network connecting the stores You'd also have to replace the mainframe because the technology from all those years ago is absolutely nothing when compared to things today as far as their capabilities go. That's probably a billion dollar task right there. Sears were forced to go the cheap route which did seem to be slightly better than before but you can never push farther than what the weakest link allows when it comes to technology. Adding new technology will only break it further in the long run due to the gap of incompatibility increases.

Just watch them, reason be damned...

Thread regarding Sears layoffs

Can't keep adding new features to outdated equipment

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