Verifone Appathon

In the heart of Silicon Valley, more than 20 teams worked for two days during Verifone’s first-ever Appathon, sponsored by Intel. Developers, representing companies such as Excentus, Inmar, RevTrax, Wonder, Zapper, Mobiry, and VR Studios, created proof-of-concept applications on Verifone’s Commerce Platform.

The winning team apps will be the first ones featured on Verifone’s App Marketplace which will be available through commerce-enabled devices including the new Verifone Carbon and Verifone Engage.

Hitesh Anand, VP of Product, Commerce Enablement and Mobile, Verifone, and Michelle Tinsley, Director of Mobility and Secure Payments, Intel, welcomed developers and talked about their shared vision for connected commerce and how the point-of-sale (POS) plays a pivotal role in transforming the payment experience. With industry data predicting there will be more than 25 billion connected devices by 2020, Hitesh and Michelle both emphasized the need for smart commerce and non-payment solutions on POS devices in an ever more connected world for merchants and consumers across industries.

With early access to Verifone’s new developer tools for non-payment commerce applications, dev teams received hands-on training and a detailed look at how Verifone’s Commerce Platform and App Marketplace will bring new and interesting solutions to the point of sale.

#HackThePOS was on fire all afternoon and the Excentus team won an Oculus Rift for the day’s social media challenge which asked participants to comment on how third-party apps are transforming the POS.

Twenty-two teams presented their proof-of-concept ideas to Verifone executives and have been invited to develop their apps for official judging in another four weeks.

Some of the more popular concepts presented included apps for card-linked offers, loyalty, personalization, splitting transactions, coupons and an app that rounds up the total denomination charged and uses the change for multiple purposes.