"The market in the entire Asia/Pacific region is growing well, but it is extremely strong in China with the build-up to the Beijing Olympics," said IHL president Greg Buzek.

"Estimates in some countries are that more than 80 percent of the operating system and application software running on those systems are pirated copies," according to Buzek. Consequently, many top vendors are targeting India before China, he added.

"In China and most of the Asia/Pacific regions, it is important to note that the market for PC-based POS systems is quite a bit different than the other parts of the world," Buzek explained. "While in more mature markets the POS systems are predominantly retail-hardened devices, the growth in China and most Asian countries is coming in the form of low-end PC POS devices and PC-on-Cash Drawer devices."

Further information about IHL's "Asia/Pacific POS Terminal Market Study" is available here.

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