Lowes equips workers with 42000 iPhones which will be enabled for mobile calling, e-emailing and text-messaging as well as processing credit and debit card purchases. In the current fiscal Lowes will be spending $1.6 billion on technology which is 20 percent more than last year.

Lowe’s Upgrades Website, Adds 42,000 IPhones to Spur Sales

Lowe’s will spend a record amount on technology in the fiscal year through January, Brown said, while declining to say how much. The company has said it will boost overall capital spending 20 percent to $1.6 billion this year.

The retailer is replacing 72,000 computer screens with flat panels in more than 1,700 stores, increasing bandwidth for transmitting data and adding Wifi for shoppers’ smartphones, Brown said. It’s adding thousands of items for sale online and last month introduced a Spanish-language version of lowes.com and an app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

“Forget about the competition, we are playing catch-up with the customer psyche,” Brown, 48, said in an interview last week at a store in Mooresville, North Carolina, where Lowe’s tested the iPhone.