The OC Technophile

The iPhone is one of the hottest selling mobile devices in the world and the business uses for such a phone are only growing. Being able to remotely accept credit cards from trade shows or fairs is increasingly a popular trend. Say you are a plumber who goes to a customers home for work and you want to charge them on the spot. Now, two new devices for the iPhone have hit the market. Marked from Square and Verifone are such techie toys. Square (www.squareup.com), doesn’t require a merchant account and plugs into the bottom of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Just swipe the card, have the customer sign the phone’s pad, and email the receipt. That simple. The other main player in this niche market is the giant Verifone. In the past month, they have come up with a Payware Mobile product which fits onto the iPhone as a sleeve and lets anyone with a merchant account to accept credit cards. Via an iPhone app, it allows you to magically transform the iPhone into a mobile terminal and allow you to charge customer’s instantly.

The main differences in these products is that Square doesn’t require you to have a merchant account, whereas the Verifone product does. Size is also a major factor as the Square product is just a small square that dangles from the bottom of the iPhone and the Verifone product is a sleeve that fits the phone much like the Mophie Air Juice pack.

Have you tried any of these? Let us know in the comments.