July 08, 2010
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News: Hope For Small Businesses
These are difficult times for small business owners. Many have been struggling with knowing that in order to compete and stay in business, they must offer their customers the option of paying by credit card. Yet, on the other hand the cost of processing credit card payments have become an even greater burden. Many high tech companies are aware of these struggles and have been focused on developing new technologies that will enable small and medium business to accept credit card payment more economically. Recently, AT&T announced a new service for small and medium size businesses that will help them do just that. The new service begins at $14.95 a month and works off the individual's Smartphone.
Apriva, a company that specializes in manufacturing electronic payment devices developed two software programs that will be available through AT&T. The first is called AprivaPay which is a browser-based program that allows debit or credit card processing through most any mobile phone browsing system. The other, AprivaPay Professional, is more sophisticated with added features that must be downloaded onto a Smartphone. The AprivaPay Professional can be integrated with a credit card reader and also enables the individual to print receipts. Apriva is not new to the industry and has offered a wide range of mobile payment devices, including the line of VeriFone wireless transaction terminals, for a number of years.
At this time, the AprivaPay Professional program is being offered to Windows Mobile devices; however, Apriva expects to expand the service to include the Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry. The capabilities of offering mobile debit and credit card payment has reached global magnitude. According to AT&T's release, currently this fast growing market processes nearly $70 billion a year and is expected to reach $600 billion by year 2014. With those kinds of projections, it is likely that we will hear of other mobile companies entering the electronic payment industry especially in North America where mobile payment technology is the least utilized.