It would seem that sometimes the tech hunches are quite accurate. We reported a day ago that PayPal may be contemplating unveiling a credit card reader attachment for smartphones. Although PayPal didn’t confirm or refute the rumor, it did say that it had something in store of that sort. And now, PayPal has revealed PayPal Here, a smartphone attachment which can read credit cards, quite like the device from Square.
PayPal has long hinted that it would like to extend its reach beyond online transactions. And with the release of PayPal Here, the company has finally entered into that realm. While earlier PayPal has been offering online services, this new product ensures a real world presence of the company and may persuade the company to start stores of its own.
As was stated at this website a day ago, the product is aimed at small businesses who can use the tiny device to put in place a fairly comprehensive payment plan at a very affordable price. According to the CEO of eBay, the company PayPal is a subsidiary of, stated, ‘What consumers are looking for is the ability to shop anytime, anywhere.’
The introduction of the triangle-shaped card reader from PayPal pits the company directly against other companies who are offering similar services, such as Square. This card reader can directly be connected to the smartphone via the headphone jack though currently it is supported only with iPhone. Apart from reading credit cards, a merchant can also enter credit card information of a customer, use iPhone’s camera to scan cards or email an invoice to a customer using the app of this device. Another very useful feature is that you can take pictures of personal checks to receive payments.
The card reader is already available to certain merchants in U.S., Australia, Hong Kong and Canada and the public availability of the device is expected within a few days.
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