As a former retail manager of a brick and mortar store, I have to say that anything that brings competition to the payment processing industry would be huge for retailers.<p>Obviously, a retailer of Apple's scale has that much more to gain from disrupting the industry. Even moreso if they plan on having to negotiate with payment processors when they bring an NFC solution to market.
Overall, I like it and it's a great idea. But...<p>Have you ever been a merchant accepting credit cards? So, that guy buys your couch for $300 (in the promo video) and guess what, no $ gets deposited into your bank account. In the merchant world, that's called a chargeback. 99.9% of the consumers have no idea what this means...you don't get paid and it typically costs you additional fees.<p>Merchant clearing companies ONLY provide an authorization and a money transfer service for their vig. This means, consumers (and businesses) have nobody working for them and no protection against the deadbeat or scammer.<p>So, you can buy that 108" LCD TV on your AMEX, have it delivered to a friend's house, call the merchant back and claim you didn't receive it, and the merchant will get the chargeback since they can't prove you signed for it. Really.
Although I hav no knowledge on the matter, why is there an assumption that this means the iPhone 5 won't have NFC?
I'd imagine if Apple were to introduce NFC it would do so by bringing on board a few large retailers who would support it and get key recognition at the iPhone 5 event.
Square would still serve a role with smaller businesses and for person to person transactions for a while I'd imagine, on top of which one would assume that square would eventually rely on NFC as well and drop the attachment.
Or maybe Apple would buy them outright - hence the reason to establish this relationship now.
How does a retailer using Square manage PCI compliance?<p>Are retailers using Square automatically non-compliant? My understanding is that PCI Council has not approved mobile applications under PA-DSS, and merchants who accept card using software that is not PA-DSS are automatically non compliant on PCI-DSS.
I think this is really smart. Think how insane garage sales can be now when people can accept credit card payments. Or being able to split checks at a restaurant (when the waiter/waitress wont do it) by charging the others at the table while you pay the restaurant. Sure it looks like Square is losing money on this, but I think it was on HN where I read that Square was already processing $1mil a day. I'd also assume that this $10 credit won't be around forever.<p>Either way, the simplicity of Square is what will make consumers interested.
FTA: "it appears that Square could be losing money on this"<p>What a naive statement. The author was doing some good reporting, then says something like this? Obviously selling the hardware is not Square's business model; collecting transaction fees is. Basic economics says they would want the devices in as many hands as possible.
Is Square attempting to market consumer uses for their product? It seems like a device and service to process credit-card payments isn't really right for the masses of consumers that flood through Apple stores.
I think this increases the possibility of something like Square being built into the next iDevice with Apple buying Square first. If Square doesn't sell, then expect Jobs to build his own.
My project (which was rejected this YC round but I still think is promising) will benefit from widespread square adoption so this is cool.<p>BTW is anyone from Square here on HN?
It's a great idea with a great team behind it and this is a huge win on the biz dev side. Congrats to the guys.<p>One inconsistency from the TC post though:<p>> ... announcing that it is processing $1 million in payments per day<p>vs<p>> COO Keith Rabois told us in January that the startup is expected to process $40 million in transactions in Q1 of 2011 ...<p>There are more than 40 days in Q1, even if you limit it just to business days. I'm confused.
Although, I was initially skeptical of Square's success, I have found Square to be great for splitting small charges such as a dinner or a gas bill between my friends and I. The little card reader gizmo is a great conversation starter.
I keep wondering. How can you trust the app on the iPhone you are swiping your creditcard through? Isn't this just a skimmers dream come true? Also, in Europe the magnetic strip is quickly being replaced by a chip.
Here's the next step in this relationship:<p><a href="http://twitter.com/stevecheney/status/43042602668404736" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/stevecheney/status/43042602668404736</a>