CBA's Albert payment terminal comes to market

Commonwealth Bank yesterday released the Albert point-of-sale device, which is available for a starting fee of $37.50 per month for a simple merchant plan.

The Android tablet device, developed in association with Wincor Nixdorf and IDEO had a lengthy 987-day gestation. Despite the bank having signed up 800 developers for its Pi software platform, only eight Albert apps were available in the Commonwealth Bank app store for Albert on launch day.

The bank however is pitching Albert and Pi as platforms for businesses to develop their own tailored applications. Fuel distributor Mogas Regional, for example, is rolling out applications that use Albert for payments and loyalty programs (for its East Fuel division) but also allow head office to remain in touch with truck drivers in regional and remote Australia.

Gary Roach, CBA's managing director of payments and cash management services, said that the "most exciting thing is what it doesn't do yet," alluding to yet-to-be written business cases and software applications.

Local software companies Kounta and Local Measure attended the launch to indicate their support for the new payments platform.

Albert is a PCI-compliant Android tablet with a touchscreen, an EMV interface able to accept chip and PIN cards, and support for contactless transactions as well as a built in printer, and 3G and WiFi connectivity.
 
While Roach acknowledged that the terminal took longer to develop than the bank would have liked, he said that quality issues had been overcome, supply was now available and the terminal had been for sale in Australia for the last two weeks.

CBA will sell the system in Australia and New Zealand with Wincor Nixdorf free to market it internationally.

Coy about the number of Albert devices currently in Australia, Roach said that ultimately he expected "tens of thousands to be deployed."

However, the bank will continue to steer smaller businesses toward the Emmy handheld payments device.