Mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) technology has transformed payment acceptance by allowing merchants to process card transactions using smartphones and tablets instead of traditional payment terminals. This innovation has significantly lowered the barrier to accepting electronic payments, particularly for small businesses, independent contractors, and mobile merchants. As smartphone adoption accelerated, technology providers, payment processors, and hardware manufacturers raced to develop secure, affordable solutions that could turn everyday mobile devices into fully functional payment terminals.
The rapid evolution of the mobile point-of-sale market also sparked competition over hardware standards, software integration, and platform control. Payment accessory manufacturers had to balance ease of use with security, while platform providers sought to maintain oversight of devices connected to their ecosystems. These developments helped shape the early mPOS industry, influencing how merchants adopted mobile payments and how payment providers differentiated their offerings through hardware design, transaction security, and branded payment experiences.
Another vendor is making card present payment capability available to iPhone users. App Ninjas, a software company that’s had a CNP payment app on the market, has brought forward an Apple-approved payment sled to drive its sales. Apple likes the device because it connects to the iPhone via the proprietary Apple connector. Apple collects a $4 royalty (or thereabouts) for each device. Rumor has it that Apple is considering banning card swipe devices that connect via the audio headphone I/O port. They can’t collect royalties on that interface. That decision would put a world of hurt on Square whose entire card swipe premise is based on its cheap, audio I/O port device.
The Swipe white-label solution enables Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), banks, and other merchant-focused companies to offer their customers a complete credit card processing solution for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Partners’ customers process cards through a custom-branded app, newly enhanced to support the Credit Card Swiper for full retail support.
“As conventional mobile terminals are being replaced by smart phones, ISOs and banks want to get to market with their own branded mobile processing solutions,” says John Waldron, CEO of App Ninjas. “Now that we’re offering an iPhone swipe accessory, they can quickly reach the market with a turnkey solution for retail transactions — saving them the expense, hassle, and compliance reviews of rolling and their own solution.”
Swiping cards offers merchants lower rates, when paired with a retail merchant account, and reduces the time required to process each transaction.
The expansion of mobile point-of-sale solutions demonstrated that smartphones could become powerful payment acceptance devices for businesses of every size. By combining payment software with secure card-reading hardware, providers made electronic payment acceptance more accessible while helping merchants reduce costs and improve transaction efficiency.
As the mPOS market matured, success increasingly depended on more than hardware alone. Platform compatibility, security requirements, merchant experience, and ecosystem partnerships all became critical competitive factors. The innovations introduced during the early growth of mobile point-of-sale technology laid the foundation for today’s highly integrated mobile payment solutions, which continue to expand payment acceptance across industries and merchant segments.
Read full press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101102006475/en/iPhone-Credit-Card-Swiper-Adds-Retail-Transaction
