Michael B. Johnson, one of the Pixar illuminati messaged Tristan O’Teirney on Twitter this morning:
Square is two items – it’s a tiny credit card reader attached to the audio port of a smartphone and it’s a piece of software that enables payments to be taken.
The ability to take payments when out on the floor of your retail space has obvious advantages but their restrictions often make them impossible to remove from that retail space. The advantage of having it connected to a mobile phone is that you end up using your existing data connection to send the credentials and receive the authorisations. Square is limited to iPhone and, at the moment, limited to the USA.
Local companies like AirPOS can provide much the same service with the additional ability to use the same software to establish a ecommerce site (the software provides you with not only a till where you can record payments but also a web site where you sell stuff, with the added bonus of an integrated stock control system.) As it’s an AIR application it’ll run on Mac and Windows laptops, tablets and netbooks as well as dedicated PCs and it’s on the way for Android phones (and probably Windows Phone 7) as soon as the AIR client for these platforms is stable.
AirPOS is one of the StartVI “high growth” companies and also was accepted to the recent ITLG awards event in Limerick. They’re in the midst of receiving their Series A funding after a very rapid development cycle and a sensible beta period with selected customers both in the UK and the USA.
I have always said that it’s better to accept credit cards than business cards when out at business conferences. Trying to re-ignite a conversation after a conference with only a business card as a reference can be difficult. Make the sale then and there.
Your customer wants to buy your product otherwise they wouldn’t bother speaking to you. Make it easy, give them permission.