Square: POS in the Palm of your Hand
I get a bit giddy when I think about Square. You may be thinking — what is square and why does it make Jodi’s stomach all a’flutter? Well, Square was created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (@jack) and the reason I think it’s so cool is it allows anyone and everyone to easily and cheaply take payment by credit card.
Little. Square. Different.
During SXSW 2010, I met Dom Sagolla (@dom), an early user of Twitter and author of the book, 140 Characters. As a friend of Jack’s, he was also an early user of Square and showed it off by taking donations for Haiti and selling copies of his book.
Sagolla said that Square can accept payments in under 30 seconds with no monthly fees. There is no cost to the person paying and the payee will be charged a small percentage of each transaction. Here’s my receipt after purchasing two copies of 140 Characters. You can’t see it on this screen but after swiping my credit card into Square, which was plugged into Dom’s iPhone, I simply signed his device with my finger and our location was saved through the iPhones geo-targeting capabilities.
This is how a square receipt looked during beta testing
After using Square, I immediately “got” how amazing this service could be. Imagine what it will do for children’s lemonade stands, food trailers like the ones popping up all over Austin, TX, and business owners in third world countries who rely on their mobile devices. Does Square appeal to you personally? What are some other uses of it that come to mind?
Wait–does it allow you to swip your card on the phone? I think I might be in love….
YES! It's amazing. Check out this article for more:http://www.fastcompany.com/1643271/square-credit-...
This is awesome. I wonder how long it will take for people to trust it. I would go to a food trailer and swipe my card, but some might find it sketchy. Hopefully it won't take too long!!
I think it will catch on pretty quickly. Let me know when the kid Megan watches decides to open a lemonade stand and take payment on his cell. Little entrepreneurs everywhere! Don't you think we should pitch a Square partnership with Junior Achievement (client) or do you think it's a little early for that?!
Apple has been using their own version of this technology in stores ever since the iPhone was released. Apple's version looks a lot more like a case for the iPhone instead of a small plugin for the device.
I actually think the simplicity of Square's small square is what will add to any skepticism. For what the device is doing, it seems like there should be more to it.
Once you use it, I think you'll be impressed Chris. Have you ever used Apple's version?
Very exciting! I can see Banks introducing it to help track fraud as well.
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