“At Apple’s developer conference in San Francisco today, the company announced it has partnered with Square to develop a new version of hardware that lets consumers use Apple Pay in stores with a Square point-of-sale system,” Leena Rao reports for Fortune.
“Square is offering the first, new 250,000 Apple Pay readers to its customers for free,” Rao reports. “Apple says that the move helps expand the use of mobile payments.”
Rao reports, “Fortune sat down with Square’s founder Jack Dorsey to hear more about the new hardware, NFC and EMV integration, and more.”
Fortune: Will you deploy a sales force to market the new reader?
Dorsey: We need to push hard on getting readers to businesses, which is why we are giving 250,000 of the first wireless readers away for free. We will also do our standard sales and marketing push. And come fall, the wireless readers will be available to purchase in Apple’s retail stores.
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This initiative will take Apple Pay into places where you’d never imagine it would be. Hopefully, there’ll be physical signage. Apple Pay locations will be marked on Maps with iOS 9, but likely not in some places that will have Apple Pay-capable square readers (temporary locations, like county fairs, flea markets, etc.)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Great! I’ve said it many times, Apple Pay is THE thing that is making me get my very first iPhone.
How many first iPhones have you had then (joke)
Apple…. Make it mandatory for murchants to put up ApplePay stickers on their windows and counters, devices etc.
Exposure .. Exposure .. Exposure .
Seconded! Too many stores are saying they have ApplePay when they only have NFC, or worse, CurrerntC.
In Southeastern New England, Ocean State Job Lot (a large, multi-store discount chain) has ApplePay Stickers on each checkout counter in front of the reader.
That would be a bit hypocritical, considering how Apple has always refused the “mandatory” stickers from Intel and others on any of their products or packaging.
Apple should provide signage/stickers, and merchants should want to display them because it will attract customers.
“At Apple’s developer conference in San Francisco today, the company announced it has partnered with Square to develop a new version of hardware that lets consumers use Apple Pay in stores with a Square point-of-sale system”.
That sounds like a store would have to get a Square system just to use that. That doesn’t bode well for mass adoption. Something like this should be able to connect to any register which was made in the last 5-10 years.
Remember all those registers in the last 5-10 years use some winblows version and are very outdated. Plus, I can guarantee Walgreen’s doesn’t use Square products and they happily let me use my Apple Watch or iPhone 6 to pay for items.
If they’re using Windows, it’s probably possible to compile drivers for them and install them.
Nope. Individuals can use the Square reader with their free iOS app. However if you want a POS system, you do have to get it from Square.
I think the comment here was that people with existing POS systems from Square will be able to use the NFC reader along with their existing system without any changes.
Oh, okay. That’s good. I was a little concerned. Though, that makes sense since it would be pointless as most retailers would likely be averse to having to spend money on new POS systems just to be able to support a new form of payment. A $50 reader is a lot better than having to buy a whole new POS system.
Retailers have to replace their POS systems so they can read the European style chip technology by October or face fines.
Merchants don’t actually have to pay fines. Even worse, they have to take on the liability of credit card fraud for cards that they process unless they upgrade to EMV. If they upgrade to EMV Apple Pay is compatible and the credit card processor is liable for fraud.
Just to clarify; Square is an independent merchant service. There are many out there that provide merchant accounts, which allow businesses to accept credit cards. Square is really cool because it makes it possible (and worthwhile) for any individual person to accept credit card payments. The main difference is that they don’t charge monthly fee; you pay nothing at all, they just take their commission from every transaction. They have an iOS (and Android) app, and they send you a free credit card reader that plugs into your phone. With this, you are ready to take credit card payments. For small business, they also have POS terminal they sell, which allows you to use iPad to accept payments, and it has more elaborate software for inventory, discounts, loyalty cards etc.
This new device they are announcing is just an expansion of the service they provide.
Square has always been a very cool concept; not just for the service they offer (there are few others with similar features, and PayPal allows the same thing too), but for their very Apple-like user interface, simplicity and ease of use. in NYC, you can see many small businesses (pastry shops, coffee shops, tea shops, sushi places…) that use Square to accept credit card payments. I wasn’t surprised that they were rather quick to offer ApplePay acceptance with their devices and service.
Aren’t all credit card readers being replaced to hand new EMV cards?
Not exactly “free”. Costs $49 for the reader however Square will credit you $49 towards their processing fees.
I pre-ordered mine – shipping (and charging) expected around Sept 2015. Nicely (unlike the current reader which needs to be plugged into the audio jack) this reader is a battery powered and wireless device so it doesn’t stress the jack on your iPhone or iPad.
I wonder which interface the Square reader uses.
From the article … “we are giving 250,000 of the first wireless readers away for free”.
“For free” is an interesting way to put it. Merchants will be charged $49 up front, but that $49 will be rebated in processing fee credits for the first three months (so unless you’re making at least $600 in credit card charges per month, it WILL cost you some money).
If a standard Square reader isn’t sufficient and user needs to get a POS terminal, this should indicate that it is a small business, or an individual with a decent volume of Square credit card transactions (otherwise, the standard, free plug-in reader should be more than enough). I can’t think of a small business that does less than $600 in one month; my community ensemble uses Square for on-site ticket sales, and we easily exceed $2k per event, and never bothered getting a POS terminal — free plug-in readers are perfectly fine for our volume of use.
Also, certain “qualified” merchants who exceed minimum estimated (or actual) amount in transactions per month will get it truly free (i.e. without purchasing and then getting reimbursed).
ordered Apple Pay reader from Square and already received supplies from Apple https://www.applepaysupplies.com/applepaykit.html