I recently ordered a Square credit card reader for my iPhone. The Square plugs into my phone and allows me to swipe your credit card so you can use it to pay for my book at a reading or a race, items I sell you on Craigslist, or other things like that.
It’s a pretty good deal – the app and the reader are free, there are no fixed costs for the service, and Square takes a smaller percentage of my sales than Google Checkout or PayPal.
The downside is that it’s a stand-alone service. Square is great for physical items, but it would be even greater if I could swipe your card and auto-magically send you a download link for a ebook, MP3, or other digital media. They could do this by building their own e-store, or by partnering with Amazon, e-junkie.com or some other vendor with an online presence where I can post my own digital goods.
Maybe if we all contact Square and ask them to set up that service…
Very cool, Ray! I read about this product when it was still in development. I guess now you have actual real-world experience with it. This is good.
I’ve got an Android smartphone, so I think I’ll have a wait a bit before I can be SQUARE, too.
(What? you say I’m ALREADY square? 🙂