Square Announces Plans to Begin Accepting Apple Pay in 2015

[ptb42]

Square, how about scrapping magnetic strip. You can't use them any more in most of the world. #getwiththetimes

Square doesn't get to make that decision. US Banks have been issuing mag-stripe only cards, up until recently. However, if you get a new or renewal card now, it probably has an EMV chip.

Starting October, 2015, merchants in the US must be have the equipment to read an EMV card. If they don't, and a customer presents an EMV card, the merchant must accept responsibility for any fraud.

Mag stripes are still needed: pay-at-pump readers have until October, 2017, to convert. There are also interim dates for ATM upgrades.

 

[osofast240sx]

They have the secure element to store device-specific credit card info for Apple Pay, they do not have the NFC antenna to accept payments. The single package has chips for both processing NFC signals and well as storing data. I guess Apple didn't want to have to supply multiple parts.

Possibly a dock or case with a NFC antenna might be a possible combo

 

[The Barron]

This is the "cash register" of choice nowadays.

This is good news, a lot of mom and pop places are starting use Square.

How true, MasterRyu2011. I'm seeing Square being used by many more merchants just in the last three months. I always mention how cool that they're doing this and they get this huge grin & proceed to tell how glad they are they made the switch.

Yes, this is a great deal for both Square & Apple.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Over the long run only one thing has to happen to significantly degrade Square's proprietary hardware driven business and that is Ape enabling iOS device to iOS device apple pay functionality.

Under such a scenario when run via apple and itunes, all of the traction would be intra Apple and apple could charge a smaller transaction fee and it would be off an running.

Of course, apple could still allow square to plug in an nfc device, but who would want the bother?

In the long term, there is major disruptive power on the side of Apple if it steps further into the bank card / mobile payments space, and mutates from a payments facilitator into a payments provider as it is within easy reach.

 

[dannyyankou]

So basically they're supporting NFC which in turn will enable Pay (among others) support.

Thank you for posting this. I hate when people think Apple party and nfc are mutually exclusive.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I have long term doubts about a square type device and service if inter brand nfc-enabled wallet-wallet transactions become possible.

Until then, square needs to hustle and get a new product combining chip reader as well as NFC functionality on the market.

 

[Olivier Giround]

This is probably the tipping point for me to upgrade from my trusty iPhone 4 to a 6... but first Pay needs to come to Canada... hurry up Apple! We still don't have iTunes Radio either! It's been more than a year.

Why would apple hurry for Canada?

 

[tmiw]

If Apple opened up the NFC chip to app developers, Square would be able to just use that. I doubt they would though because the whole point of Apple Pay is security.

 

[BruiserB]

When Apple first revealed ApplePay, a lot of people were surprised as Apple had been rumored to be developing something using BTLE (and/or iBeacons).

I think I remember someone from Apple stating that they went with NFC initially because of existing infrastructure and that Bluetooth could come into play later.

The way I see it the proprietary part of ApplePay is the way they create the one time payment token (and do so only when validated by TouchID). Now they can choose to transmit it in various ways.

1) Use existing NFC infrastructure.
2) Over the internet by in-App ApplePay.

and perhaps in the future ...

3) By Bluetooth to a receiving device.

So there's no reason this third method couldn't be used for Square.

 

[kwikdeth]

why would square need to introduce new hardware? couldnt the users who are ostensibly already using iphones or android devices with NFC just use that?

 

[deeddawg]

I have long term doubts about a square type device and service if inter brand nfc-enabled wallet-wallet transactions become possible.

JMHO but it'll be a long time before physical cards are no longer a significant presence in the payments space. I'm sure phone based payments will become very popular, but merchants will want to be able to accept a physical cards for a long time.

Square has recently begun taking pre-orders of EMC-enabled credit card readers as well. Nice to see a company that embraces the technology rather than picking some out-dated, exclusive, not-as-secure system like CurrentC.

Well, Square would pretty much be putting themselves out of business if they didn't have a way to accept EMV cards by the Oct 2015 deadline.

Square, how about scrapping magnetic strip. You can't use them any more in most of the world. #getwiththetimes

As mentioned earlier; if they DIDN'T accept magstripe cards they wouldn't even be in business in the US. Until very recently almost nobody in the US was issued chipped cards. Everythng's been card-swipe forever. #watchyourassumptions

 

[teknikal90]

I love square.
They're doing amazing things. And they're allowing a lot of other people to do amazing things.

All credit to them.

 

[Patriot24]

Great news. Apple has a huge opportunity in this area if they enable device-to-device Apple Pay payments via NFC.

 

[dannyyankou]

why would square need to introduce new hardware? couldnt the users who are ostensibly already using iphones or android devices with NFC just use that?

NFC isn't open to developers.

 

[doelcm82]

NFC isn't open to developers.

For now.

I think that Apple uses an NFC chip that includes the "Secure Element" required for Apple Pay to work. One way Apple keeps that "Secure Element" secure is by not giving developers access to the NFC chip.

There are many potential uses for NFC, but I don't want Apple to compromise the security they have built into Apple Pay. Perhaps they can accomplish this safely using just software, but it may require updates to hardware as well. This would mean that current devices like the iPhone 6 or iPad Air 2 will not natively be usable as POS terminals, and you'll have to rely on third-party add-ons such as Square.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Square doesn't get to make that decision. US Banks have been issuing mag-stripe only cards, up until recently. However, if you get a new or renewal card now, it probably has an EMV chip.

Starting October, 2015, merchants in the US must be have the equipment to read an EMV card. If they don't, and a customer presents an EMV card, the merchant must accept responsibility for any fraud.

Mag stripes are still needed: pay-at-pump readers have until October, 2017, to convert. There are also interim dates for ATM upgrades.

There are a lot of ATMs in Europe that still aren't upgraded, and ATMs still need the magnetic stripe to be able to know when to open the card gate. Though it'll still use the EMV chip itself for the transaction part.

 

[mbc2237]

I love how some people just listen to their feelings and don't bother asking questions like 'why'? If Square is voluntarily a part of the iOS / Apple Pay ecosystem, what advantage would come from buying them?

Might have already been mentioned but i believe apple tried to purchase square and they turned them down.

 

[SixtyK]

I've been debating whether to go with Square to accept credit card payments or a similar product from PayPal... Square just made a strong case for themselves.

 

[Elbon]

I feel like Apple could buy Square and do very well. Even enable individuals to accept payments using Apple Pay.

Exactly. The iPhone already has NFC hardware built into it. Seems like it should be possible to use that hardware to accept payments as well as make them.

 

[fallenjt]

This is probably the tipping point for me to upgrade from my trusty iPhone 4 to a 6... but first Pay needs to come to Canada... hurry up Apple! We still don't have iTunes Radio either! It's been more than a year.

Tell Canadian government to be nice to US, so you guys will get the same favor as US residents. It's ridiculous that Canada don't have what US have for this kind of service/product.

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There are a lot of ATMs in Europe that still aren't upgraded, and ATMs still need the magnetic stripe to be able to know when to open the card gate. Though it'll still use the EMV chip itself for the transaction part.

ATMs in US are not upgraded to accept NFC either, only POS. Maybe, you misunderstood of Apple Pay: it's for Payment, not Withdrawal/Deposit purpose. Why do banks need to spend money to upgrade ATM with NFC to get nothing back?

 

[TonyPie]

OK, now when does Discover Card wake-up and take Apple Pay? I'm still waiting for this to happen, what's the delay?

 

[gijoeinla]

This is good. In fact think about how many iPads Square will be buying with NFC...

I think this means that your iPhone will probably be a terminal and accept payments and all you'll need is the Square app..

 

[flyingember]

It looks like many people think that because the phone has NFC it can accept payments that way. This article seems all about Square looking to incorporate the NFC hardware into their register and this will then send the NFC data to their app. The exact opposite thing from what the iphone 6 has.

Square doesn't get to make that decision. US Banks have been issuing mag-stripe only cards, up until recently. However, if you get a new or renewal card now, it probably has an EMV chip.

One of my banks issued me two new cards this month. One credit, one debit

Neither were EMV capable.

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Tell Canadian government to be nice to US, so you guys will get the same favor as US residents. It's ridiculous that Canada don't have what US have for this kind of service/product.

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ATMs in US are not upgraded to accept NFC either, only POS. Maybe, you misunderstood of Apple Pay: it's for Payment, not Withdrawal/Deposit purpose. Why do banks need to spend money to upgrade ATM with NFC to get nothing back?

Remember It's an automated teller machine, not a cash withdrawl machine, and tellers take money too.

About half the cards in the country today can be used with the ATM network to instantly add money to one's account using just the card number. The other half can accept money but with a slower deposit.

So in theort it's possible to do a NFC transaction that basically authorizes your card and you then you feed money intto the ATM and it assigns it to your account via your card. Imagine if there was a network and you could do it at any ATM with a fee.

They would get a ton back by extending their hours without hiring more staff. The up front cost could be a few thousand dollars per machine and they're ahead within a month. There's also that whole third party network. They would make a profit by putting these terminals in convenient locations.

 

[Narg]

Bump

So, if both phones have NFC, then why not just bump the phones together? Why the need for a specialized device hanging precariously out of the audio jack?

 

[fallenjt]

Couple of observations:

First, this will likely bring Starbucks into the Apple Pay fold, as well.

I think this may be another nail in the coffin of MCX.

Starbucks won't spend more money to upgrade their POS. It's not grocery stores where shoppers can chose alternative stores. It's about coffee. I wouldn't give up my Starbucks Macchiato for Peets's Macchiato because Peets can take Apple Pay...they taste different. Also, Starbucks app is already in Passbook anyway, it pops up automatically in the iPhone locked screen once you approach Starbucks store and you can access the card by unlocking the phone: Touch ID, scan and done...pretty much the same actions as Apple Pay: Scan, Touch ID and Done.