May 12, 2010
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News: Square Debuts After Final Test
The mobile phone credit card application that has been tested and retested is ready to fly the coop. Jack Dorsey's long anticipated and widely talked about mobile phone credit card payment processing application, Square, has been officially launched. Dorsey, one of the co-founders of Twitter is the father of Square that has received a great deal of attention. You might call it free advertising as regular leaks to the media have occurred over the past year about the developing trials and errors of the application. It appears Dorsey's experts have worked out all the kinks and is ready to accommodate any retailer ready to begin offering credit card customers the innovative service.
According to Dorsey, it's a simple process where retailers can easily download the Square application after signing up for the service. At the point of sale (POS) the credit cardholder merely connects to the retailer's system with a small plastic tube which plugs into a iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android mobile phone. Cardholders have the capabilities of adding a tip and payment is integrated into their credit card company's regular monthly billing. Cardholders authorize transactions by placing their mark on touch screen. Retailers will love the new system that costs less for payment processing fees than the traditional payment processing systems.
Square was debuted earlier this year with a test of 1,000 credit cardholders allowing time for the company to work out the final details. Upon signing up for the service, each cardholder gets one Square device free of charge. The device is an inexpensive and small gadget that plugs into the cell phone headphone jack when it connects to the POS plastic tube. Dorsey has high aspirations for the little gadget and expects to sign up millions of users within the next few months. And how much do you think Dorsey has allocated for marketing? He expects to make Craigslist his major marketing venue and with all the free media attention, it's not likely that line item is very large.