Apple’s announcement about turning iPhones into point-of-sale devices is about more than payments. In the relatively unexciting world of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, things are getting interesting. And that’s because the future of payments isn’t really about digital money, it’s about digital identity.
As more and more merchants, more and more SMEs, more and more micro enterprises move away from cash, so there is a growing demand for cheaper and more flexible technologies than the traditional hardware devices that you see at the Walmart checkout.
One particular trend, driven by the interlinked evolution of tap-and-go payment cards, contactless terminals and smartphones with contactless interfaces is toward software POS (SoftPOS) solutions. These are applications that enable mobile devices to accept contactless payments using the built-in antenna, with no need to connect an external “dongle” via USB or Bluetooth and the demand for such solutions is significant. Read more>>.
