POS Terminals Shipped Worldwide

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Point-of-sale terminal shipments worldwide reached 136.0 million in 2021, up 4.3% over 2020. Shipments of these devices by manufacturer and region are presented on pages 6 and 7. POS terminals counted include countertop, multilane, tablet and handheld devices with integrated chip and/or magnetic stripe card readers, unattended devices, terminals that can read QR codes and also accept cards and those that can read a biometric identifier and then facilitate a payment. Also included are PCI DSS approved mPOS chip & PIN devices, approved mPOS chip & signature devices and mPOS devices not connected to a smart mobile device.

Shipments of POS terminals to the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region declined 6.3% last year to 81.9 million devices. Asia-Pacific’s market share of global shipments was 60.22% in 2021, down from 67.04% in 2020.

POS terminals shipped to Latin America and the Caribbean grew to 25.1 million in 2021, up 32.9%. Latin America’s share of the global total was 18.46%, an increase from 14.49%.

Shipments into Europe reached 12.6 million, an increase of 13.0%. Europe’s market share grew to 9.28% from 8.56%.

The Middle East-Africa (MEA) region received 8.9 million POS terminals last year, up 35.7%. The MEA market share grew to 6.52% of global shipments from 5.01%.

Shipments into the US of 7.0 million terminals was an increase of 18.9%. The US share of all terminals shipped worldwide grew to 5.16% from 4.52%.

Canada received 0.5 million units, unchanged from 2020. Canada’s market share slipped to 0.36% from 0.37%.

The Asia–Pacific region received 5.5 million fewer devices in 2021 than in 2020. Wuhan Tianyu Information Industry Co. shipped the most units to APAC, moving up from third largest. New POS Technology remained the second largest, with China and India among its largest markets. However, both Tianyu and New POS had fewer shipments to APAC than in 2020. Centerm moved up to third largest in APAC from sixth. Newland remained the fourth largest. It shipped the majority of its devices to China.

Pax Technology was the top supplier to Latin America. It has held that position since 2017. Pax shipped 0.2 million more units in 2021 than in 2020. The majority of Pax terminal shipments were mPOS chip & PIN devices, followed by traditional POS terminals and mPOS devices that don’t require connection to a smart device. It also shipped unattended devices and a small number of mPOS chip & signature devices.

Worldline led shipments to Europe. Its total figure included devices branded as Ingenico, which it acquired in 2020. However, on October 3, 2022, Worldline completed its sale of its Terminals, Solutions & Services (TSS) business to Apollo Funds. That company will now operate independently as Ingenico. Verifone was Europe’s second largest provider. Shanghai Sunmi Technology ranked third owing to strong shipments to Germany. Datecs was ranked fourth. The majority of its shipments were mPOS chip & PIN devices. Datecs’s largest markets in Europe were Germany, Sweden, the UK and Italy.

Pax Technology was the largest manufacturer to the Middle East–Africa region, followed by Newland, which moved up to second from eighth. Its largest recipient country in MEA was South Africa.

The largest suppliers to the United States were Verifone, followed by Worldline/Ingenico and Castles Technology.

For Canada, Worldline/Ingenico, SZZT and Newland were the largest suppliers.

Of all PCI DSS approved POS terminals shipped worldwide last year, 42.1 million (30.96%) were mobile (mPOS) devices. They communicate with tablets and other terminals via Bluetooth or USB, although 36.82% do not need to be connected to another smart device.

Pax, Newland, Dspread and Nexgo (Shenzhen Xinguodu) were the top manufacturers of mPOS devices in 2021.

Not included in this issue are smartphones used as POS terminals, peripheral PIN pads, island card readers, terminals that read QR codes but do not accept cards, card reader dongles inserted in smartphones or tablets, magnetic-stripe card readers connected to electronic cash registers (ECRs) or PC-based systems, other card readers, or ECRs or PC-based systems themselves.

Some of the POS terminal manufacturers featured here also produced some of these devices. Those figures will be included in an upcoming issue.

Prior issues: 1205, 1182, 1166, 1162, 1160, 1154, 1152, 1151, 1146, 1145, 1144, 1143