Thursday, June 2, 2011
Both devices have added communication features. Square additionally introduced a new application called Card Case that allows consumers to search local businesses, view menus, track and store digital receipts, and open digital tabs to make purchases on iPhones or Android devices.
Square is a mobile payment startup founded by the co-creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Square technology – both the software and credit card reader – is free.
"Cash registers and credit card terminals are relics of an expensive, complicated, and impersonal commercial transaction system," Dorsey stated in a press release. "We revolutionized the payment industry with the Square card reader, which makes it possible for anyone to accept credit cards on their phone. Now with Square Register, we're reinventing point of sale with a beautiful, intuitive iPad app. Card Case goes beyond point of sale to transform the entire buyer-seller relationship."
iZettle was introduced in late May. Its new mobile payment application works in much the same manner as the Square Register application.
iZettle allows small businesses and individuals to process credit cards with no startup costs and no fixed fees or hidden charges. iZettle tracks payments and records deposits. Information about the transaction can be uploaded to social network sites if the consumer chooses.
iZettle is Europay/MasterCard/Visa approved and complies with applicable Payment Card Industry data security standards, according the company. No sensitive data is stored on the iPhone, and all data is encrypted. If the consumer chooses to add an email address at the time of purchase, he or she may receive a receipt for the transaction.
Similarly, according to Square, Register enables businesses to manage sales using touch technology, check daily transactions, update pricing, automate checkout, generate digital receipts and maintain virtual storefronts.
Square Register and Card Case features include:
As the popularity of the iPhone, iPad, and Android grow, and the technology is better understood and more widely used by consumers, an intersection with the payments industry, particularly ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs), is unavoidable.
Jerry Cibley, National Sales Trainer for United Bank Card Inc.'s Harbortouch division, isn't worried this will have a negative impact on the payments industry. "I am extremely excited about this technology and what's happening with the iPad, iPhone, Android applications," he said.
"Hand-held devices are not new. I can clearly remember selling a hand-held device years ago," he added. "We had a restaurant in the Northeast we were using as a testing place. We were doing then what the iPhone apps do today – taking orders at the table, paying at the table. The problem was with the battery life. The devices only went for about 45 minutes before they needed to be taken into the back and recharged. It was not very practical."
Cibley noted the use of mobile devices for payment purposes is already popular in Europe. "I think it will be another 36 months before it is really going to take off here," he said. "I am convinced the time is right for this new technology. I just returned from the National Restaurant Association convention, and there must have been 25 booths there featuring iPad, iPhone and Android applications. Three years from now 30 percent of them will be gone, and there will be just a few left. The technology is brilliant, though."
Cibley doesn't believe the mobile payment technology is a harbinger of doom for the feet on the street. "This will never stop ISOs or MLSs," he said. "You are always going to need somebody to sell the product. ISOs just have to mold and change as the industry changes. If they don't morph themselves, they will be left behind."
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