Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
Mophie and Intuit have entered the iPhone credit card transaction game with the Complete Card Solution for iPhone. Mophie, known for its iPhone battery pack cases, developed an iPhone 3G/3GS case that includes a magnetic card reader built in. When the card is swiped, data is encrypted before it uploads to the iPhone to be processed by the Intuit GoPayment 3.0 app.
Mophie is working on an iPhone 4 version of the device. In the meantime, Square features a portable card reader that plugs into the headphone jack of any iPhone or iPad. The two competing payment systems have different costs, with Square being completely free to set up. Complete Card Solution is $179 for the card reader unit and requires a $12.95 monthly subscription.
The fee per transactions differ, however, and Mophie and Intuit's system will support up to 50 users on a sales team. It seems Square is targeting smaller businesses and individuals, while the Complete Card Solution will appeal to larger businesses and organizations looking for an easy-to-setup payment solution. Although individual transaction fees are greater with the Mophie unit, Square takes a larger percentage of the overall payment amount.
Both Square and the Complete Card Solution are quick and easy to apply for and set up. The Mophie iPhone card reader can be purchased at Apple retail stores. A magnetic card swipe is built into the bottom of the iPhone case and the Intuit app is included as part of the package.
After a busy day of transacting purchases, the Intuit web site details sales data for your team. For more in-depth analysis financial data can downloaded to Intuit's QuickBooks suite on the Windows or Mac platform (not included).