Hypercom Corp. announced April 13 plans to sell two versions of a card reader that plugs into an iPhone and uses its wireless connection to handle card payments. The products, called SmartPayments Mobile, are designed for merchants that want to accept card payments but cannot be tied to an office location because of the nature of their business.
One version of SmartPayments Mobile includes a bar code scanner to further replicate the experience of paying at the point of sale. Hypercom expects to begin selling these readers in June.
Though many payment-terminal makers already offer mobile card readers to merchants, observers say accepting payments with smart cards could be more cost-effective because merchants need not pay for an additional wireless data connection beyond what they already pay for using the phone itself.
Though the market for readers that connect to Apple’s smartphone is young, it is already getting crowded.
Last week, GorCorp Inc.’s payment gateway USA ePay, launched its own iPhone card reader, which it calls PaySaber. Like Hypercom’s reader, USA ePay’s reader also allows merchants to scan bar codes. USA ePay also sells versions for phones that run BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Android software (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/usa-epay-introduces-card-reader-iphone-ipod-touch-3001306-1.html
The startup Square Inc. kicked off the iPhone card reader craze with its December announcement of a reader that potentially could plug into the audio port of any smartphone. Despite this early attention, Square was beaten to market by VeriFone Holdings Inc., which sells an iPhone-specific reader called PayWare Mobile that merchants may buy online or in Apple retail stores.
Square offers payment software only for Apple’s new iPad tablet, which today only connects through Wi-Fi; a version that communicates through AT&T Inc.’s wireless network is planned for this month (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/Square-iPad-Card-Transactions-3001248-1.html Square has not yet offered an iPhone version of its product.
What do you think about this? Send us your feedback.
