In the 70's, Panasonic produced POS equipment for McDonalds and ERC POS, in the 80's Panasonic recruited dealerships in the US. The US POS dealer network at that time pretty much understood that 80% of their revenues came from the service department. PC's were just beginning their entry into the POS market. Panasonic made a reliable product but the software was a little stiff and it was all Eprom based (no computers with HD's). All went ahead smoothly until dealers realized that Panasonic POS was too reliable. It became hard to sell a maintenance contract when the equipment didn't break. Ironically it was their reliability that hurt them. Today Panasonic seems to be moving in a good direction, produce an open POS product platform that anyone can use.