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| Zettle turns any iPhone into a smartcard reader |
Starting in Sweden in June, anyone can take card payments. You and your friends. Your business. All you need is an iPhone and iZettle.
Yes, it's the EMV Version of Square and a company called iZettle is reporting that it will be available in Sweden in June.
The smart card reader plugs into the iPhone but rather than use a PIN to authorize payment, the customer signs...the...screen...
According to TechEurope, "iZettle "wanted" to use PIN, but "PIN is still not allowed in cellphones and iPads" said Jacob de Geer, CEO and founder of iZettle.
While that may be true (and for good reason) but the PIN Pad could've been built-in to the Smart Card Reader alleviating that problem. (Guess heZettled for customer signature) Sure, a tamper-proof built-in PIN Pad would have made manufacturing more cost intensive, but one day, everyone will realize how important security is when it comes to payments. That said, the only Chip and PIN Card Reader that I know of with a built-in PIN Pad is from a Hong Kong company called BBPOS. If you would like to learn more, click here.
iZettle's willingness to provide the iZettle software and card reader for "Free." is quite a value proposition (more so than Square) because smart card readers currently cost from €200 and on up. iZettle plans to make their money on the transaction fees generated from the devices. Frankly, it might make sense for Square to take a look at how much they could swipe up iZettle for. Oh...and here's a cool iZettle video...
