This is a very good question, and I don't have any answers.
But one anecdote that might be relevant...
My wife and I were on a date last month at Chima, a Brazilian Churrascaria. The waiter took our drink orders on an iPhone. Throughout the rest of the night, we could ask any of the wait staff for something, they would just punch it into their iPhone and someone else would bring it right out. The system worked flawlessly. (This was also our first date in 10+ months, so I was probably pre-wired to be happy/impressed with anything.)
At the end of the meal, I asked to play with the app. It was really well done, with large, intuitive buttons, and a simple interface: [1] enter the table number, [2] choose the item category, [3] choose the item.
Most surprising of all: it was actually his iPhone. The servers get the choice of using one of the house's iPod Touches, or their own iPhones.
Now, Chima is an upscale, national chain, so it could be years (or never) before this trickles down to your local neighborhood bar, but I thought this was an inspiring indicator of how mobile technology might be integrated into the service sector.
But one anecdote that might be relevant...
My wife and I were on a date last month at Chima, a Brazilian Churrascaria. The waiter took our drink orders on an iPhone. Throughout the rest of the night, we could ask any of the wait staff for something, they would just punch it into their iPhone and someone else would bring it right out. The system worked flawlessly. (This was also our first date in 10+ months, so I was probably pre-wired to be happy/impressed with anything.)
At the end of the meal, I asked to play with the app. It was really well done, with large, intuitive buttons, and a simple interface: [1] enter the table number, [2] choose the item category, [3] choose the item.
Most surprising of all: it was actually his iPhone. The servers get the choice of using one of the house's iPod Touches, or their own iPhones.
Now, Chima is an upscale, national chain, so it could be years (or never) before this trickles down to your local neighborhood bar, but I thought this was an inspiring indicator of how mobile technology might be integrated into the service sector.