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Feb 21
2010
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The Square Up Payment SystemPosted by: Dave on Feb 21, 2010 Tagged in: twitter , squareup , payment processing , online payments , news , multiple payment options , mobile payments , iphone , e-commerce
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Last October I mentioned the Square iPhone payment system, a new start up business from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. In December they started a live customer trial and they recently announced that they are taking signups for their pilot programme.
Square allows anyone with a mobile device (currently only iPhone and the iPod touch are supported) and the square dongle to accept credit card payments. The square dongle is a small magnetic reader that plugs into the headphone jack of the mobile device. Once a card is swiped the dongle reads the card and converts the data to an audio signal. This audio signal is then picked up by the microphone and routed to the square software. From here the data is encrypted and sent the the payment network for approval. Instant confirmation of the payment is displayed on the device and also sent to both parties via SMS or email. The following video from Square gives an introduction to the system.
The video highlights what I feel are the two most important selling points of the square system:
Target Audience - it is aimed at both merchants and consumers, anyone can accept payments.
Simplicity - Easy to setup, there are no contracts, no monthly fees and you can start accepting payments immediately.
It is still early days for SquareUp but if they can live up to the claims on their website and in the video above then I expect they will present a challenge to the major players in mobile and online payments.
Dave
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written by John Clarke , February 25, 2010
A sneak preview for webpayments readers - WorldNet have just got approval from Apple for an iPhone Virtual Terminal, that is certified with the Irish Acquiring Banks (check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/WorldNetVT, or search on "WorldNet" in iTunes).
So if you have a merchant account with an Irish Acquirer, you can now accept payments on the move, via your iPhone.
We have not formally announced this yet, expect to hear a lot about it over the next few weeks....
written by Peter Connor , March 26, 2010
Two crazy things.
1) By brother saw this in op in the apple NY store and was every impressed.
2) What a cool advert.
I'm in.
written by John Clarke , March 26, 2010
Apple do not actually use the Square solution in their Apple Stores, it's a customised solution Apple developed themselves. It's more of a "Cash Register in an iPhone" solution, so it does a lot more than payments. For the time being, Apple are keeping this for themselves, and are not releasing it as a general product.
But it's the same general idea, and Yes, it is very cool.
written by Kevin Walker , April 28, 2010
The world is moving to Chip cards (EMV)... the reader hardware used for this app is for magnetic strip cards; old technology that will soon go the way of floppy disks. They will have to figure out a way to make a reader for EMV (which requires the chip be in contact with the reader throughout the entire transaction) before this will have any hope of being a long term venture. I hope merchants or anyone using this app actually looks at the rates being charged on transactions... very, very high.
written by John Clarke , April 29, 2010
Magnetic stripe is only really used in US, and they show no sign of moving away from it any time soon. Which is why the main iPhone payment app providers (Square, Verifone & Hypercom) only support these apps in the US.
For Europe, it is unlikely that the iPhone itself will ever be PCI PED approved, so for it to support EMV will require an external device - this may be directly connected to the iPhone, or a separate device what connects to the iPhone over wireless. There have not been any announcements yet from any of the major terminal providers that they are working on this specifically for the iPhone, but I would be surprised if this is not being worked on in the background.
Wireless EMV readers do currently exist, but as they are about 10 times the size of an iPhone, they do not make for an elegant solution. What is needed is a much smaller EMV input devide, designed with the iPhone specifically in mind.
written by Peter Connor , May 11, 2010
From what I can tell you can receive payments even when you don't have a merchant account. Does anyone know how they do this? I thought (like in paypal) you can only receive payment if your a merchant bank account?
Thanks Pete
