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Triton throws a curve with new ATMs
The biggest changes in Triton's new 9400 are cosmetic ones. It has a rounded profile and dark blue color that Triton hopes will help set it apart from the rest of the retail pack. But another new machine, the 9800, marks the most dramatic departure from form yet for the manufacturer.
January 9, 2002
Depending on who one asked at Triton's annual Distributor Conference in Biloxi, Miss., the manufacturer's newest ATM resembles a pregnant woman, a cell phone or "something out of the Jetsons."
All agreed that the new machine, the 9400, looks nothing like Triton's flagship product, the 9600. And that's the point. While only a few tweaks were made to the interior of the machine, the biggest change is in its outward appearance.
The 9400's curvy, dark metallic blue design won enthusiastic reviews from most of the distributors in attendance at the conference, including Doug Falcone, president and CEO of Access to Money, a New Jersey ISO.
According to Falcone, aesthetics are becoming a product differentiator in the retail marketplace. "(Customers) like a more modern look," he said.
The rounded silhouette notwithstanding, Triton seems somewhat reluctant to stray too far from the formula that made the 9600 such a success – with about 50,000 of them in North America at last count.
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The new 9400 was on display at the Triton Distributor Conference in Biloxi, Miss. |
The single significant change to the machine's guts is a newly integrated set of electronic components. While the 9600 had up to five separate circuit boards, the 9400 has just one. Eliminating the multiple boards should result in improved problem diagnosis and fewer service calls, said Bill Jackson, Triton's chief technical officer.
"Sometimes when we were troubleshooting remotely, it was difficult to pinpoint the problem and (the service technician) would end up replacing more than one board," he said. "With the 9400, they just pop out a single board."
Although Triton didn't release official pricing, Jackson said the wholesale cost will be similar to the recently released 9610.
Beta tests for the 9400 are slated for August, with shipments expected to begin in September.
Triton has been somewhat conservative with new product releases in the past. Two years passed between the 1997 debut of the 9600 and the 1999 launch of the Mako, a machine targeted to the low end of the retail market.
That's about to change, however, with the introduction of the 9400 and Triton's first PC-based machine, the 9800. Unlike the 9400, the 9800 is "a brand new machine from the ground up," Jackson said.
On the hardware side, the 9800's features include an Intel motherboard, 566 megahertz Celeron processor, 128 megabytes of RAM, CD-ROM drive, 10 gigabyte hard drive and 1.44 megabyte floppy drive.
The machine runs on a Windows 2000 operating system, which Jackson touted for its stability. It's "the first operating system Microsoft has gotten right," he opined.
Other than Fujitsu, which is using Windows 2000 in its recently-introduced 8000 Series, most ATM manufacturers are migrating from OS/2 to a Windows NT-based platform. Noting that Microsoft is no longer offering training for Windows NT 3.5 or 4.0, Jackson said, "They're basically introducing an obsolete product."
Other high-end characteristics that mark a dramatic departure from the rest of Triton's product line include a 12-inch SVGA LCD screen with a digital video interface for added clarity and far more sophisticated software that includes a user toolkit for customers who want to create their own applications.
For more functionality, an optional sidecar attachment can be outfitted with features such as a check cashing module, large format printer or other options that have been requested by some of Triton's largest distributors.
"We expect to be literally inundated with ideas from distributors on what you'd like to see these machines do," Jackson said.
While the price of the 9800 is expected to be several thousand dollars more than the 9600, Jackson said it will be far less than products already in the market with similar functionality.
Like the 9400, the 9800 is slated for a September release.
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, Jackson said Triton will continue to shorten the product cycle. "You'll never see us go two years without releasing a new product again. Our engineering team will be working on the next generation probably the day after a new product is released."
Plans are already in the works for a future incarnation of the 9400 that will feature an embedded PC. While it may eventually replace the 9600, Jackson said that won't happen any time soon.
"Your old buddy the 9600 is still kicking," he told distributors at the conference. "We'll continue to make it as long as you want to buy it."
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