Lowe's hardware deploys 42,000 mobile devices (and iPhones) to staff

Lowe’s is a massive, massive American hardware chain. They did $48 billion in sales last year. 15 million shoppers flock to their stores every week.

I’m pleased to report that they haven’t been waiting around for mobile to hit them.They’ve deployed 42,000 mobile devices to their 1,700 stores (almost 25 devices per store) to help with all manner of issues. Lowe’s CEO, RObert Niblock comments:

“Our goal is to make home improvement simple for customers and for our employees. Leveraging Apple’s iPhone technology, our employees will check inventory availability, access how-to videos and utilize lowes.com from the aisles of the store.”

I haven’t been able to establish if they’re actually deploying a few iPhones and then 41,500 mobile point-of-sale devices, or if they’ve gone all-iPhone. Either way, it’s rather exciting to see mobile technology being adopted in such a direct manner.

If you’re a regular visitor to Lowe’s, expect to be met with sales assistants bearing ‘mobile devices’ at every single Lowe’s store by the end of this coming January. The next time I’m in the States I’m going to have a look and see how they’re using the tech.

(I came across this one via RIS news thanks to this intomobile post.)