News

Kiosks, ATMs finally meeting, vendors say

September 4, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO -- SwipeUSA announced that it deployed its first high-security, outdoor ATM enclosure at a business complex in Berkeley, Calif.

The vendor said in a news release that the long-discussed, but slowly realized marriage between the ATM and kiosk industries has taken center stage as SwipeUSA has partnered with kiosk enclosure manufacturer METALfx from Willits, Calif., to design several custom ATM and kiosk products.

The outdoor ATM enclosure weighs more than 1,000 pounds, utilizes 3/16" hot rolled steel, and is secured by a LeGard 6-point mechanism digital lock. The high-security enclosure costs $4,999, the release said.

The ATM security enclosure marks the seventh project the two companies have worked on together, with several of the most recent products revolving around the after-market ATM industry.

The first joint project was SwipeUSA's NetJet, an Internet kiosk that premiered in San Francisco at the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association tradeshow last February.

The NetJet is a cybercafé-style kiosk which uses the METALfx ARC kiosk enclosure. The unit serves as the platform for the next generation of consumer services that will be offered at Internet kiosks, and eventually on ATMs, the release said.

SwipeUSA's Vice President of Sales Ron Christensen said, "We are very excited about these new projects. The merging of the two industries is inevitable with the many technological advances taking place in both the ATM and the kiosk arenas. We are hoping to position ourselves as a leader in the kiosk industry as a custom kiosk development company."

METALfx Sales Manager Ben Wheeler said, "SwipeUSA was intriguing to us because they have the forward-facing outlook to marry the two industries together by taking the best of both offerings and giving them an equal home within their business model, and a real vision on which to thrive."