> "..spawning copycats like PayPal’s Here card-swiping device and similar systems from Amazon.com Inc. and Intuit Inc."
Actually, Intuit came up with the idea for using mobile phones to accept card payments in 2007. They ran trials in the Bay Area in summer 2008, launched GoPayment properly in early 2009 (with a Bluetooth reader supporting various feature phones), and launched an iPhone app in August 2009. Inner fence had already created a card terminal app for the iPhone in late 2008 (albeit without a reader device).
Square announced their card reader in December 2009 and didn't actually launch until the following May.
PayPal started in 1999 as a way to "beam" money from one Palm Pilot to another via the infrared port. You'd load your Palm up with money from your bank / credit card, then use it like cash on your mobile device. http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/07/20...
Nice to see this timeline. After a failed photo startup, we launched Credit Card Terminal for iPhone in October 2008. It took Apple around two months to approve it, during which we received one of the famous "requiring unexpected additional time for review" emails. I'm pretty sure they didn't quite know what to make of it back then. April 2009 really kicked things off though when Apple put our app, along with Print n Share and FedEx, in a "There's an app for that" tv ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZxpljDz4Wc
Converting the Mag-stripe into an audio signal that could be sent through the headphone jack was pretty clever and enabled very cheap devices. And correct me if I'm wrong but I believe square was first there.
Actually, Intuit came up with the idea for using mobile phones to accept card payments in 2007. They ran trials in the Bay Area in summer 2008, launched GoPayment properly in early 2009 (with a Bluetooth reader supporting various feature phones), and launched an iPhone app in August 2009. Inner fence had already created a card terminal app for the iPhone in late 2008 (albeit without a reader device).
Square announced their card reader in December 2009 and didn't actually launch until the following May.