from Hacker News

Square’s Disruptive New iPad Payments Service Will Replace Cash Registers

by acrum on 5/23/11, 5:20 PM with 128 comments

• by cwilson on 5/23/11, 6:11 PM

  I'm not sure if many HN users are familiar with TabbedOut (there are quite a few venues in Austin that support it), but there is definitely some cross-over here with the Square Case. Specifically if this works in bars.

  Essentially you can open and close a tab with a bar whenever you want. Forget to close your tab and realize you're a mile away from the bar? No problem, you can close it and add tip from anywhere. Forget your credit card often at bars? You don't give them a CC in the first place because it's stored in your TabbedOut account.

  It also does nifty things like allow you to split checks via the app at restaurants, which is super useful.

  One of TabbedOut's big accomplishments is they have invested quite a bit of time/money integrating with point of sale systems which is what allows them to have such a slick user experience. I'm curious if this is something Square has done as well.

• by lionheart on 5/23/11, 6:32 PM

  My local coffee shop here in Tempe, AZ switched over to using an iPad with Square instead of a cash register about a month ago.

  As a customer I like it. It's fast and slick. The employees seem to like it too.

  Only one thing: if anybody from Square is reading this look into allowing the option of a bigger, sturdier card reader. The little on you ship now is flimsy and doesn't work too well if you use it 500 times a day.

• by CodeMage on 5/23/11, 5:49 PM

  Every time someone talks about Square, they call their service "disruptive". Sorry if I'm being dense, but what is it that they're disrupting?

• by esmevane on 5/23/11, 10:46 PM

  Leena,

  http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...

  As you can see, you have published numerous articles on this company with a blatant formula to your titling strategy.

  If I may offer some constructive criticism, I would recommend that you vary your language just a bit with the next Square article you post.

  Thanks :)

• by inkaudio on 5/23/11, 5:54 PM

  I didn't read anything about square providing hardware to store cash. It can't replace traditional cash register if the system does not accept cash. There already more mature Mac based cash registers that it would be competing with.

• by holman on 5/23/11, 5:50 PM

  Really stoked about this. I wish they had more details on the process, though.

  At first exposure, the idea sounds really, really cool. But it sounds like they're breaking the normal purchase loop. Imagine lunch, for example (assuming you've already set up your tab, which is a lengthier first-run experience). You go up to pay, and then... what? TC explains it as:

  > So once you press that button within two blocks of the merchant, you’ll be able to tell the cashier your name and your card will be charged on the merchant’s backend Square register.

  So do you pay in advance? Afterwards? (In which case, can I just walk out and screw the retailer?) Do I as the user set up the bill, or does the merchant and I have to review it? Does either party have to wait for the other to confirm something? I've already been at Square retailers that have skipped Square during times of high customer peaks (opting for cash, which was much quicker).

  These are probably just early questions that will look obvious and boring once it's all figured out and public, but right now I'm scratching my head a little.

• by cssmith on 5/23/11, 6:17 PM

  >500,000 Square card readers shipped, 1 million Square transactions in May

  So, half a million card readers have been shipped and they've each been used, on average, twice in this month? That seems really low to me. Do a lot of merchants get the reader and not use it at all?

• by kenjackson on 5/23/11, 6:24 PM

  What's the innovation here? I mean its great if I already have an iPad at checkout. But why would I buy a $500 device to sit next to my cash register? Or if I'm going all credit and debit, there are already services that work with $250 netbooks. And beyond that you can just lease the little boxes for like $20/month+some surcharge.

  It seems cool for techies, but is it really going to change the game?

  UPDATE: Although this seems like more of a win for door to door sales and maybe mall kiosks.

• by baptistepicard on 5/23/11, 6:16 PM

  This is another brilliant call from Square. NFC technology is not yet developed and many problems still exist for the implementation (the iPhone 5 might not have the appropriate chip for example), whereas square seems to make it easy for both customers and merchants. The only problem I see is that this square technology is suitable for the US market but I'm not so sure about Europe.

• by kellyreid on 5/24/11, 3:30 PM

  I run a small retail biz and do a lot of trade shows. Square is the best thing to happen to my business since finding funding to start it. It's THAT good.

  I don't know if it's even on the table, but I agree with the article; there should be bids out for this company. I'm hoping that Dorsey et al do not sell it. I could see Visa buying them and doing something destructive - intentionally or not.

• by grandalf on 5/23/11, 6:00 PM

  Why is the magnetic stripe reader necessary? Why not just use the camera to OCR the card itself?

• by mattvot on 5/23/11, 7:21 PM

  No it won't, for one good reason.

  I can buy a Cash Register for around $50, whereas iPads start from $500

• by seikatsu on 5/23/11, 8:40 PM

  Wonder if all the Square attention is good for the broader "POS disruption" space?

  For example Erply (http://www.erply.com/), an award-winning startup, recently made news with porting their web based POS solution to iPads recently. Any others you know?

• by 46Bit on 5/23/11, 6:37 PM

  A problem that's immediately been raised by shop owners I know is that of theft - regardless of how much of a brick it might be to them (strong non-numeric passcode etc). You can't just walk off with a cash register, or at least fence it easily & for much.

• by petervandijck on 5/23/11, 5:39 PM

  Jack Dorsey is practicing to take over the reins from Steve Jobs. Not bad.

• by rawsyntax on 5/24/11, 4:50 AM

  I don't see this replacing cash registers. Think of places like the grocery store. Porting all that coupon / discount code?? Too much work

• by ROFISH on 5/23/11, 7:31 PM

  Does anybody know how programmable their POS is? (ie. if there's a sale, is there a webhook that can be called?)

• by kgermino on 5/23/11, 7:22 PM

  Is it just me or does the CrunchBase entry for Square read like it came straight from their PR team?

• by creativeone on 5/23/11, 7:23 PM

  Do they have an affiliate program? Or can I become and outside sales rep in another country?

• by thinkcomp on 5/23/11, 6:01 PM

  If anyone is interested, FaceCash Register works with cash, credit cards, and FaceCash payments too.

  https://www.facecash.com/register.html

  It's JavaScript-based so it works on just about every platform, not just iPad.

• by nextparadigms on 5/23/11, 5:52 PM

  Won't Square be affected by NFC payments when they arrive?

• by pitdesi on 5/23/11, 7:13 PM

  This is fantastic news for small coffeeshops etc everywhere.. This makes for a very compelling use case. It is now far cheaper than a merchant account or verifone for smaller merchants, when factoring in that you get a free POS system. Hopefully this will stop the insanity of some payment processors giving out "free pos" systems but raping merchants on the credit card processing. We've seen restaurants paying as much as an effective rate of 7%! because they were going with the company that gave them a "free" POS system.

  relevant: http://feefighters.com/square-calculator - a reminder of how good Square's pricing is (relative to a merchant account) for coffeshops, etc.

• by dr_ on 5/23/11, 7:14 PM

  There was an article suggesting that Apple should purchase a carrier, like Sprint. Wrong. Square is the company they should really focus on buying.