Square Card Swiper Turns iPad Into Register

For most people, the iPad is probably a device used mainly for entertainment purposes – to play games, watch videos, browse the Internet, or read ebooks. Some use it for work purposes, to write perhaps. But we’ve also seen commercial establishments using iPads to enhance customer experience. And this is exactly what San Francisco payment startup Square has done with its iPad stand that does more than hold the device in place.

The Square card swiper takes the magical device to a more practical level, at least for shoppers and shopkeepers. The underlying idea is as simple as can be, and you probably are thinking that you wish you’d have thought about it first! What the Square card swiper does is to turn an iPad into a cash register of sorts.

The attachment holds the iPad much like your favorite iPad stand, but this particular accessory can take credit card payments, creating a full functional cash register just like those you see in regular shops, albeit this one more high tech. With the Square card swiper, merchants can use other accessories such as a receipt printer, a kitchen printer, a cash drawer, and even a barcode scanner.

The Square card swiper is not the first product of the startup, who has Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey behind its operations. The startup already has more than 3 million small merchants using the Square Register, which gives smartphones and iPads the capability to accept credit card payments.

However, this latest from Square is bound to impact the way merchants do business even more and may very well make this kind of POS system the default in the future. For sure, customers who already rely on their iPads for numerous things will not be averse to iPad-based POS systems just like the Square card swiper.

The Square stand currently costs $299, and is only available via for pre-order. In July, the stand will be available via the startup’s web site as well as at Best Buy.

[Image via TechCrunch]