It’s hip to be Square

“Mark Beccue, a senior analyst at Abi Research who studies consumer mobile technology, also has reservations. “What puzzles me is, what market we are addressing here?” he says. “I saw a video of using [Square] in a coffee shop and thought, ‘Don’t they have a cash register?’ ” Beccue concedes that the product may work for certain niches, such as markets or art fairs, but he doesn’t think it has mainstream appeal. He suggests that most small businesses will prefer traditional point-of-sale systems for managing credit cards, and that ATMs are convenient enough that individuals aren’t likely to turn to Square to pay each other.”

Technology Review: New System Swaps the Cash Register for an iPhone (via kevintwohy)

Oftentimes people fail to see beyond the first version of the product. What I like in this prototype is the transformation of a simple monetary transaction into an application that leaves a trace.

That application may eventually include a request for the payer to review or rate the restaurant, etc. So for that article to talk about how “the device won’t be sturdy enough in the long-term” is kind of ridiculous. It’s a first version. It adds meta to monetary transactions. And think of the advertising opportunities! It’s cool, aight?