Updated Square Card Case App Runs a Tab, Pays for You
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011If you imagined that, in the future, you could just walk into a store, take a product, and say your name to the cashier to pay for it, you’re correct. Except that the future is now.
On Wednesday, San Francisco-based start-up Square announced an update to its Card Case app for iPhone 4 and 4S. Users who have the updated app on those model smartphones, as well as the new iOS 5, can leave their phone in their pocket, wallet, or purse, along with their old-fashioned plastic credit cards, and simply pay by saying who they are at the register.
‘Automatic Tab’
About 20,000 retailers now have the ability to accept Card Case payments.
With iOS 5, the Card Case app can determine when the smartphone is 100 meters or closer to a participating merchant. When nearby, the app automatically opens an “automatic tab” in that user’s name at the register, which also displays a photo of the would-be customer.
At that point, the user simply needs to identify themselves. After the sale is made, the confirmation is sent to the iPhone. The app currently only supports those specific iPhones with iOS 5, but Square said that it intends to include the functionality in an update for its app on Android devices.
Square is a fast-growing company whose aim is to revolutionize in-person e-payments. Its first product was a small credit card reader that attached to an iPhone’s headphone jack, allowing a merchant to accept credit cards and debit cards. The company says it has shipped about 800,000 readers.
A Little Too Friction-Less?
Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner, said that “merchants will love this, since they love anything that makes buying as friction-free as possible.”
But, Gartenberg added, it “will probably take some time to evangelize the virtues of this to customers.” To many customers, he…
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