| The iPhone and other smart-phone lines are quickly becoming wireless POS devices, but the trend is young and will not take over the market in the near future. In recent months, various innovative new applications, processing gateways, and peripherals, have emerged that enable mobile merchants from pizza-delivery men to plumbers to accept card payments via smart phones such as the BlackBerry, the Palm Pre, or the iPhone. Therefore, the new applications and phones are steadily decreasing the need for these professionals to pay for and carry a separate, more costly purpose-built payment terminal. The effect on wireless-payment terminal manufacturers and mobile merchants themselves could be substantial, as the smart-phone revolution significantly broadens the market for mobile payment acceptance. This new payment option has seemingly originated from the confluence of more broadly available smart phones (which are actually more like ultra-portable computers now), inexpensive and plentiful data access, and a constantly growing, mobile workforce. Also a factor is the poor economy, which is driving many former salaried employees to start up their own independent businesses. One example is Intuit's GoPayment, which offers mobile merchants the ability to accept card payments over various smart phones via a mobile web browser or via a free downloadable application, with merchants using GoPayment paying a monthly service fee and standard interchange rates. Eric Kowalchyk, product manager for GoPayment, admits that his company's mobile point-of-sale strategy with GoPayment is part of a bigger initiative to reach out to millions of mobile businesses that already use products like Quicken's iPhone application and QuickBooks. Merchants cannot accept PIN-based debit card payments because mainstream cell phones lack a standards-compliant keypad, the issue of a PIN debit acceptance is major one and a bid downside for mobile merchants wanting increased versatility in card acceptance. |
