Custom Kiosk Manufacturers Recommended
jobpoint kiosk
Custom kiosks are an art that few companies demonstrate recurring deployed excellence. A truly custom kiosk may also be an exclusive design. That can be a little spendy but just like TIO for banking payment kiosks, it happens. You are not going to get a custom kiosk from China, unless you have someone make one for you here and then let China copy it. [Feature Image is a telehealth unit from RedyRef].
The picture to the right is a “custom kiosk” that NeoProducts did for UK Postal Job Centre in 2001. Based in Australia but with a facility in the UK (I visited). Injection molding… 9,000 units. Might be the first large-scale production kiosk?
Introduction: Custom kiosks always have unique requirements either functionally or aesthetically. Mercedes-Benz likes stainless steel for example. It fits their brand—big budget. A good place to see custom kiosks is our Best of 2024 Awards. I love the empire state building unit and also the Santa Monica outdoor smart city. One and only one place to get those units…
Big problem is Non-Disclosure Agreements. We did it but we can’t tell you.
One criticism I have received is “But you forgot Europe!”. (See criticism comments below and also kioskeurope.org). I am very data-oriented and while I am indeed an Okie from Muskogee, I do pay attention to the world, especially the details. Canada and Mexico are NOT considered US (and neither is Greenland:-). Let’s do a region breakdown.
Regional view of of our Top ten kiosk manufacturers in the world and excellent standards
Here are the companies with the “most” custom designs in the last 5 years. Olea and KIS are equally capable but Olea/Frank always end up doing more customs (though he has a new modular line which is custom in its way). Alpine Kiosk is modular. Lego-blocks.
Custom Kiosk Manufacturers
- Olea Kiosks – custom kiosks and standard kiosks
- KIOSK Information Systems – custom kiosks
- Kiosk Group tablet kiosks
- Kiosk Innovations – kiosk design
- Alpine Kiosk
- Advanced Kiosks
- REDYREF – standard and custom kiosks
- Entropy Cabinet Solutions
- ImageHolders – tablet kiosks of all types
- Alveni – custom kiosks and software
Excellent Standard Kiosks
- Peerless-AV Kiosks
- Pyramid Technology — custom kiosks and standard
- ACRELEC – McDonalds
- SKG Manufacturing
- KT Group
- EasyPay Systems – bill payment
- Honeybee Kiosk — smaller outfit – new payment support
Notes
vision screening kiosks Solohealth
We also mention Frank Mayer. They focus on Point of Purchase merchandising displays as a rule but they have done some terrific custom design kiosks. See Scan and Go for Krogers circa 2018. Their biggest project was Solohealth but originally the unit was designed by KIS in 2008.
Backstory Context — I won a Best of Show at KioskCom that year with Solohealth. Ron Bowers with FMA kept hanging around and later when we/KIS had some problems, he adeptly stepped in and took the production away. We underestimated Ron and he made us pay dearly. We did all the work and they got the build. The actual design of the kiosk was handled by Neil Nguyen who happens to be CEO of Kiosk Innovations now. That unit actually has two displays. One of them is inside the kiosk, actually. I had to steal an ELO 22 off the show floor to replace ours that failed hours before the judging.
Definitions
- Is it really just a modified standard kiosk? Those are cheaper.
- Have you visited the main office?
- Have them pull their mobile out and give you a virtual tour of their plant and offices.
- I’ve done that several times with China.
- Where is the design and engineering done?
- Where is manufacturing?
- Where is the assembly, for that matter?
- How often and how recent, or is it just a “we’ve done that before” verbal.
- Typically, a custom unit is a smaller production run (20?)
- Much heavier design and engineering cost factor.
- 10X the profit factor (why sell 100 when you make more money selling 10?)
- Are they an actual kiosk manufacturer?
- Or do they just sell or serve as a provider of kiosks (eg Diebold, Grubbrr, etc).
- Some “standard kiosks” are extremely customized
- Custom kiosks usually implies NRE or non-recurring engineering. Can be over a million dollars and that is just hardware (AT&T and Verizon good examples)
Examples of Custom Kiosks
People will tell you they do custom kiosks, but what have they done? Here is a list of RECENT projects. I did custom kiosks in 2006 but those don’t count.
- Olea Kiosks – US
- KIOSK Information Systems – US, Europe and Taiwan
- Amazon Whole Foods Return Locker —
- Bcycle – Bike Rental
- Kiosk Group –US
- Braille kiosk with DOT
- Kiosk Innovations – US
- HUD One Stop
- Toronto One
- Alpine Kiosk
- Advanced Kiosks
- REDYREF – standard and custom kiosks
- Entropy Cabinet Solutions
- ImageHolders – tablet kiosks of all types
- Alveni – custom kiosks and software
Advertising But Not Providing
Companies like I&E and Elotouch advertise quite a bit, but, they don’t do custom kiosks.
Pictures of Kiosk Design
Here is our collection of kiosk designs — https://www.pinterest.com/kioskindustry/kiosk-designs/
Comments and Criticism
- List that excludes rest of world beyond North American shores, few notable exclusions KT, Evoke Creative, OEM kiosks, E-kiosk are just few that pop as well known within custom kiosk fabrication. [nice cheat on North American especially from European in the list…]
- Kenneth Larsen thanks for speaking in behalf of so many other interesting and amazing custom manufacturers of selfservice kiosks like PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS® . Kudos to your comment. [I am familiar with CityLink but that was one project and done back in 2019.]
