
The other night Elana and I went out to dinner to Legal Seafood. We love the restaurant. It offers good drinks, excellent, fresh food, and there was even a bit of tech mixed in for good measure. Who could ask for more??? The tech came at the end of the meal when we went to pay the bill. If you have been to Legal you know that they use an “at the table payment system”. That really means they use a Pocket PC device that has been enabled for use with credit cards. We asked our server what she thought of it and she said that, overall, she likes it. (She especially liked the fact that it means that you don’t have to take the credit card into the back room to run it through which is a great thing in this era of credit card fraud. (I suspect she meant “I like it when it doesn’t crash. Just kidding Redmond…)
Perhaps it’s that experience that brought to my attention the recent release of another payment system that uses the iPhone instead of a Pocket PC. VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile iPhone card payment solution has been available since April 6 at Apple Retail Stores and the Apple Store online. The hardware works in conjunction with Chase Paymentech, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase who is the “preferred provider of new merchant accounts” to make using the iPhone for credit card checkout fast and secure.

The VeriFone hardware is a
sleek and durable card reader slips over iPhone to accommodate card swipes and allow merchants to avoid high-cost “card-not-present” fees. It incorporates a stylus for signature capture and a mini-USB port for charging iPhone while the ergonomic reader is attached. The PAYware Mobile card encryption sleeve incorporates VeriFone’s end-to-end encryption technology and ensures secure payment processing.
It is a pretty cool looking system and one I suspect our server from the other night would choose over her current PocketPC device were the two placed side by side. I’m looking forward to seeing one in action soon. I’ve included the April 1 Press Release below.

VeriFone Announces Preferred Processing Partner for Retail Distribution
SAN JOSE, CA – April 1, 2010 – VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY), today announced that Chase Paymentech has been selected of VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile iPhone card payment solution sold through Apple Retail Stores and the Apple Store online beginning April 6.
, is a global leader in payment processing and merchant acquiring and an ideal partner in providing merchant processing services to small businesses who purchase the PAYware Mobile card encryption sleeve for iPhone.
“Chase Paymentech will be instrumental in achieving our goal of making it as easy as possible for merchants to acquire PAYware Mobile for iPhone so they can meet their customers’ demands for a card payment option,” said VeriFone CEO Douglas G. Bergeron. “No longer will these small businesses lose sales because of an inability to accept payment by credit card or ‘check’ card.”
VeriFone’s sleek and durable card reader slips over iPhone to accommodate card swipes and allow merchants to avoid high-cost “card-not-present” fees. It incorporates a stylus for signature capture and a mini-USB port for charging iPhone while the ergonomic reader is attached. The PAYware Mobile card encryption sleeve incorporates VeriFone’s end-to-end encryption technology and ensures secure payment processing.
Users also gain access to the PAYware Connect gateway, a fully customizable and reliable gateway service that’s ideal for small businesses. Details of all iPhone payment transactions are available in real-time within the Merchant Portal on the payment gateway, which also enables businesses to consolidate payment reporting from multiple PAYware Mobile-equipped iPhones.
About VeriFone
VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (“VeriFone”) (NYSE: PAY) is the global leader in secure electronic payment solutions. VeriFone provides expertise, solutions and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare vertical markets. VeriFone solutions are designed to meet the needs of merchants, processors and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide.



























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