Square Register
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While a case solution on the iPhone would work well, I can see why they might not do this for the iPad (designing an entire case, just for card swiping, for such a large device seems silly and wasteful), but something along the lines of this would be a huge improvement over the current card reader design (basically, it fits around the corner of the device, giving it much more stability): http://olloclip.com
Any cable that maintains mic capability with stock Apple headphones should be fine.
[1]: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=...
Bigger stores can probably use an iPad instead, but I don't think we'll see a Bluetooth solution for the above reason.
Actual wireless card device processor cost around $800. That let place for square to come up w/ something.
source: http://www.acceptcreditcard.ca/articles/using_a_wireless_car...
That being said, Intuit's UI is hideous, Square's is gorgeous.
Surely this is due soon in the U.S.? http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1...
i.e. this would be how I would have done it.
Watch this interview with Jack starting at around 16:00. Comments about NFC around 18:00.
http://www.livestream.com/techonomy/video?clipId=pla_98a128d...
izettle is European version of Square. They use EMV off course.
https://squareup.com/register
Businesses have an incentive in maintaining their reputation and not getting into trouble with payment processors, and I generally think people assume any business approved by a payment processor is probably sufficiently low-risk to give a credit card.
I'm not sure what else you would expect here?
1. They show me the price before submitting it. I ask for a receipt sent to my email, which they need to type in, but I get it on my own phone immediately. The clerks I've seen do this HATE having to type in my email address because they invariably type it incorrectly.
2. The ipad swivel. I sign with a stylus, type in my own email address and choose to send the receipt that way. The whole time I'm talked through it all by the merchant. I prefer this method.
3. The clerk just rings me up and never bothers to offer the receipt, but I ask anyway, because, like the grandparent post, I don't quite trust these things for some reason yet. The clerk has no idea how to do it, so I end up showing her and then tell her about the swivel mounts and the stylus.
Shame they require you to have a Facebook account to sign up as a user.
What I do wonder though, is why they're shipping this with such a terrible stand/card reader attachment? I can't see those lasting 6 months in a busy shop environment. I'd like to see a swivel stand that's locked to the counter which you can slide the ipad into, then bolt secure and lock with a key. While you're at it, build a robust card reader into the side of the case. Basically something similar in form factor to this: http://www.directindustry.com/prod/elo-touchsystems/touch-sc...
I could probably put something like that together in a weekend with a trip to fry's/home depot, but why should I have to?
Also, a question I'd have before using this - what happens in the event of a software crash? Where is my data, how quickly does stuff get backed up online?
Maybe a paid upgrade card reader is the next step, but if their goal is broad, cheap and easy distribution they'll probably be shipping with this model for a long time.
Overall great product, and demo video!
Case in point: One of my favorite restaurants in Seattle was using iPads for registers (not using Square's product). I came back a few months later and they had switched to a 'normal' POS system. "What happened to the iPads?" I asked. "There were too many issues and they crashed way too often." It was a case of a restaurant that wanted to be on the cutting edge -- but in the end it didn't work out, so they went with a standard solution that worked well.
I don't doubt that square can execute -- they have already shipped some great products. I just want to point out that it's not as simple as some people might imagine.
I always pick credit at the terminal because it's faster and more secure than entering my PIN at some random POS, although the merchant then has to pay a credit card fee on that transaction.
But to answer your question: yes, lots of people pay for coffee with actual credit cards. Some like the budgeting, some like the rewards/cashback that come with many credit cards, and some people are just bad with their money.
Don't forget that there is a lot of inertia in the States due to the huge population. It would be much more difficult to role out a national payment network here than in Australia. It's easier to piggy back on the system set up by the credit card companies than it is to get all the banks to work together.
There are a couple of other factors that make cards more appealing here too. Sales tax is added at the till. Where I live it's 8.75%. This means I can't know ahead of time what I owe and prepare the correct coins and notes. Additionally, I use Mint to track and categorize my spending. It sounds silly but it makes it so easy to track my budgets when I pay for everything by card.
Also, the large majority of banks offer Mastercard/Visa debit cards where even though you press 'Credit', its your money from your Savings account. You get the benefit of more consumer protection via Mastercard/Visa, as well as contactless payment and sometimes not having to sign or enter PIN
What's to stop someone jailbreaking an ipad, writing a custom fake ui, clipping in a square scanner, and writing off a days worth of cheap merchandise down at the park for a haul of card details?
If this becomes common, will credit card companies still offer the same guarantees on transactions?
The fact that stolen credit card numbers, even with a full billing address and CVV2 code are still only worth a couple dollars on the black market. Your setup wouldn't even capture that, so your merchandise is probably worth more than the numbers. And you're putting yourself at pretty serious risk of getting caught by running this scam in person, when it's much easier to do some kind of phishing scam online anonymously, with more valuable results.
Stolen credit card numbers just aren't very valuable. If you're not living in a nation with an ineffective or corrupt legal system, what are you going to do with the numbers without a high risk of getting caught? Making your own plastic cards and magnetic tracks is expensive and you end up on security camera video using them. Ordering anything tangible online means linking your fraud to your physical location one way or another. You can order a bunch of porn or other intangibles, but that's a pretty low reward for all the risk.
In the end, it's a moot point anyway. Normal credit card terminals can be bought on eBay for less than an iPad and can be used for card theft just the same.
In europe we use chip and pin, so a fake app could collect the pin directly. If someone was to harvest 30 cards with pin, could they then visit an atm directly? Perhaps I'm underestimating the difficulty of cloning cards. If that is possible, CVV2 would be unnecessary.
I hear your point about normal credit card terminals being available. As a european I wouldn't expect to see one on a stall by the side of a road though, and would normally be suspicious of anyone suggesting that they accept credit cards under these conditions.
I don't know how the bank cards work, but here in Portugal we now have a citizen's ID card that looks much like a bank card and can actually do cryptographic operations itself - it has a private RSA key that it can use to sign and encrypt data by request of the card reader. It's essentially impossible to clone the card, at least without breaking it.
EDIT: According to this article[1], PIN-and-chip bank cards are similar to what I'm describing.
[1]: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/outdated-smart-c...
However is the market for square at this price point really for anything above one or maybe two point of sales?
Using this setup in some bar environments would require some hardware to protect the iPad, I've worked looking after hardware in busy student union bars where the staff just destroy the tills with spillages.
My impression of the earlier square products for POS were that it's intended for giving the small business something, not for running your local branch of Starbucks.
Does anyone know if it works well (or at all) with multiple iPads? Can you view/manage the inventory online?
One example is, "What hospital did you live near when you were on RandomName St.?"
How did they immediately know what street I lived on some years back, and also that it was near a major hospital?
The authentication was all pretty impressive, but kind of creepy too.
Maybe the question is a standard one, and I happened to add more meaning to it by dumb luck of where I lived.
I thought the stand was for demonstration.
The video shows a different stand than the homepage pic.
Instead of stores having to buy some expensive & clunky cash register or crazy expensive PoS solution; they can pop down to their local Apple or electronics store & buy a future PoS device.
It's very powerful when anyone can start accepting payments by just popping down to their local electronics store.
Good information here. Lot's of valid points, complaints, arguments. There are many ways to improve Square, the UI, the hardware, the usability, training, etc. They have a solid product.
edit: Or, at the very least, entitled to 30% of the fees charged by Square to the merchant?
Or perhaps they are collecting a (lower?) percentage.
I did a LOT of POS work a few years ago for small businesses. An iPad/iPhone would be dead and broken in less than a month for most retailers. You need pretty hard wearing industrial grade kit if you don't want to throw it away 3 times a year. That flimsy card reader is almost comedic - you'll break it and your device.
If it's your revenue collection equipment, it makes sense to buy something that will last i.e. was designed for the job rather than sit there not being able to take cards.