This Idea is brilliant, use the iphone as a POS system (aka Point of Sale System). With a small addon your iPhone and a Square account you can start accepting Credit Cards in minutes. At least that’s what the site tells me, I can’t wait for a closer look.
Great Uses
Square has a pile of awesome features like:
Photo Verification.
Create a Square payer account to speed up and secure every payment. With photo verification, Square users can visually confirm you are the card holder.
Reward your Customers.
If you frequent a place that accepts Square, we’ll let them know you’re a repeat customer. That 10th cappuccino may be on the house, no paper coffee card required.
Paperless Billing
As a payer, get your receipts sent to your email or mobile phone instantly and access them securely online. You can also use a text message to authorize every payment in real-time. View sample
Now I’m one of those guys that never carries cash, I’m a plastic dude what can I say, so merchants better accept that plastic or they won’t have my busieness ( and no i will not use the ATM that charges me $2/ transaction down the street )
Big Picture
For consumers the choice between smartphones remains clear, if not obvious. The iphone is leading in market share and dominating in mind share, yet there is still a valuable group of customers that the iPhone wants, blackberry using business people.
For apple, products like Square are a powerful step forward, giving exponentially valuable services will attract more business users. Especially if those business users want to take credit cards anywhere!
Keep an eye out for Square in the wild. I want to know how your experience goes!
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