I’ve been following the progress of Square, the iOS hardware add-on and software app which can turn an iPhone or iPad into a point of sale for retail purchases. I haven’t much personal interest in using this product, but I find the idea and execution of this concept to be quite elegant. Along with the Google Wallet (more on that later) it appears that Square may have a profound impact upon the little purchases we make through the day.
This will ultimately eliminate all of those annoying paper receipts, as well as the need to carry coins (to make purchases, or to receive as ‘change’). My back pocket is looking forward to these upcoming changes.
Square ‘Register’ Aims to squeeze out the Cash Register
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/square-register
Square, which made it possible for the smallest, most accidental merchant to accept credit cards by eliminating expensive equipment and high fees, has a new idea: Banish the cash register. And paper receipts, while we’re at it.
On Monday, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey unveiled Square Register, which will allow merchants to manage inventory and run analytics against their sales — without expensive equipment and high fees.
Only about 50 vendors are launch partners for Register, which is accompanied on the customer side by a sort of virtual card case that makes it easier to pay at Register establishments and is designed to look like a wallet containing loyalty cards.
But despite the softish arrival for this enhancement, Square itself seems on solid footing: Dorsey said that the company has shipped 500,000 Square readers, and on Sunday Dorsey tweeted that the company had booked $3 million in a single day for the first time. Square reached the $2 million milestone less than a month earlier. It took 15 months to hit the $1 million mark.
How Square’s New Pay-With-Your-Name System Works
http://mashable.com/2011/05/23/square-card-case
Square has just introduced a new mobile payment system that allows consumers to pay with their names, no wallet needed, with merchants who use the Square card reader and run the startup’s newly updated Square Register for iPad application.
Card Case, as the consumer update is called, utilizes a digital “put it on my tab” system and is supported in Square’s just-enhanced mobile application for iPhone and Android.
Beginning Monday, 50 merchants in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis will start accepting payments by tab. Users can unlock the Card Case and the ability to pay with their names by making their first purchases at a participating merchant.
“Cash registers and credit card terminals are relics of an expensive, complicated, and impersonal commercial transaction system,” Square CEO Jack Dorsey says. “With Register and Card Case, we’re transforming everyday transactions between buyers and sellers into something special,” said Dorsey.
Square kills the need for NFC with virtual "tabs" and Card Case
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/23/square-kills-the-need-for-nfc-with-virtual-tabs-and-card-case
Square CEO Jack Dorsey certainly had the right idea in having his presentation broadcast as part of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week. In an announcement made this afternoon, Dorsey essentially announced a sea change in the way that people can make purchases at local businesses.
To start with, the company has announced a way to eliminate the need for Near Field Communications (NFC) capability in smartphones. By using an iPad or iPhone and the Square app as a cash register, and then providing a way for customers to set up a tab at a local business, those customers can pay for products or services in the future simply by giving the store or restaurant their name. At that point, the person operating the Square register can verify the sale by seeing a picture of the person and noting that they’ve done business with the company before, and then make the transaction. A receipt is emailed or texted to the customer, and the credit card transaction takes place behind the scenes.
How Jack Dorsey’s Square Is Accidentally Disrupting the Entire Payments Industry
http://www.fastcompany.com/1754859/how-square-is-accidentally-disrupting-the-entire-payments-industry
Wallet Death Watch
http://www.digitizd.com/2011/05/25/the-wallet-death-watch-2
“We want to take away all of this clutter, all the paper, all the mess,” Dorsey said. “Get rid of the take out menus, get rid of the loyalty cards, get rid of the receipts, get rid of it, and replace it with one clean digital card.”
The card, also an app, lets customers see menus that can be updated in real time through the Square register, as well as keeping track of full itemized receipts for every purchase. The card case also lets people see a directory of shops in the area. It also allows people to open up tabs so that they can simply pay with their name at locations that accept the Square card case.
Wallet Death Watch continued…
http://www.digitizd.com/2011/05/26/the-wallet-death-watch-ctd
