Estonia-based Erply has become the latest firm to launch a system that turns iPhones and iPads into card payment terminals.
Following in the footsteps of Square, Verifone, Intuit and iZettle, Erply offers merchants a reader that connects to mobile devices to take payments. It currently works with iPads, with iPhones to follow in the next three months.
The system transmits customers' encrypted credit card data to the firm's own point-of-sale and inventory management software, giving retailers the ability to view real-time data and analytics.
The company is focusing its efforts on the US market so the system works with mag-stripe, not chip, cards. However, unlike its rivals, Erply also lets merchants accept contactless, NFC-based payments.
The start-up charges a 1.9% transaction fee, which it says is "considerably less" than Square, which charges 2.75% but while Dorsey's outfit gives away readers for free, Erply is asking for $50 and also requires merchants to pay at least $70 a month for its software.
Kris Hiiemaa, CEO, Erply, says: "As technology changes, we are giving consumers the ability to pay for items the way they want to, whether it is with cash, credit cards or with NFC technologies in phones. The Erply inventory management backend provides the foundation for our comprehensive POS solution, so retailers are ready for wherever the market may take us."