While an increasing number of retailers are adopting smartphones and tablets as mobile payment terminals, the deployment process can often prove to be expensive and time consuming as the sizes and form factors of devices continue to change. Leading NFC terminal maker Verifone aims to solve that problem, announcing today a new mPOS terminal that supports all mobile payment platforms and devices.
Verifone’s upcoming PAYware Mobile e355 should be an extremely valuable option for retailers looking to deploy a mobile POS system without being locked into a single ecosystem. PAYware Mobile e355 is designed to work with multiple device sizes and form factors, meaning that retailers won’t have to constantly upgrade their hardware when next-generation iPhones or Android-based smartphones are released.
PAYware Mobile e355 accepts all payment types, including EMV, NFC, Apple Pay, and traditional magnetic stripe, and supports all major platforms such as iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The terminal also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB connectivity and an optional barcode scanner for processing coupons or other uses.
“The prospect of having to purchase new mPOS devices for sales associates when smartphones and tablets are upgraded has been a major inhibitor to mPOS investment among retailers,” said Mark Shockley, senior vice president of Mobile Solutions for Verifone. “Verifone’s single, modular solution will offer the ultimate in mPOS flexibility, allowing it to persist across changes in devices, even if somebody wants to make a complete switch from one OS to another.”
Verifone’s future-proofed PAYware Mobile e355 will be available for merchants in late summer 2015, although no specific pricing or availability information was provided beyond that date. As mobile payment platforms such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Softcard continue to gain traction, and Chip-and-PIN technologies become mandatory, this new terminal may be a more valuable investment as retailers weigh their mobile POS options.
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Nice to see someone’s trying to unite all the different players in payments.
I will be a happier camper once restaurants with table service start using at-table card readers.
Restaurants are a huge vector for US card fraud – as the customer hands the card to the staff, and then the staff takes it away and comes back later. A lot can happen during those 60 seconds. Not very cool.
This isn’t Europe so that may never happen. The version of EMV being rolled out in the US is Chip and Signature, not Chip and PIN. Seems that we just can’t keep up with the rest of the world.
Actually, it’s likely to be both PIN and signature if the purchase is over a certain amount (determined by the merchant). I’m in Canada and for every day purchases we simply use chip-and-PIN on debit cards, but in some cases for large purchases or if the card is a credit card rather than debit than a signature is still required.
The EMV supported in the U.S is most certainly Chip + PIN. I work in Product Development for a major credit card processor and we have applications on hardware available right now that accept Chip+PIN EMV transactions.