5.1 Manufacturers of unattended retail components

The unattended retail device which is used to sell a product/service to the user is the combination of the experiences of many different actors, and sometimes also from people coming from outside the unattended retail area.

As in many other areas, the knowledge required to create any device grows over time.

The basic idea of the specification is to be able better insulate the knowledge of each actor providing also simple way to interconnect the components needed.

And the boundaries are basically already the way the manufacturers of vending machines are internally dividing their knowledge: people making good coffee, or reliably delivering pre-packaged product, or making effective method of payments, or finally managing the machine data to best operate the business.

This is not done to make strong separation between company business, but to enable knowledge in each area to be able to grow in independent way; this is why the first people which will take advantage of the specification are the manufacturers.