Smartphones to become POS terminals?

Apriva

As smartphones become more and more part of our daily lives, the financial possibilities are steadily increasing. As such, US telco-giant AT&T has teamed with wireless payment specialist Apriva to launch applications that turn smartphones into point-of-sale devices for accepting card transactions.

The mobile payments has been growing for a while now, with the market expected to be worth over $70 billion by the end of the year, but with AT&T getting in on the action, expect the sector to increase exponentially.

According to the telco-giant, AprivaPay and AprivaPay Professional apps provide small businesses with a reliable and safe way for business users to make the most out of the mobile payments market.

According to Finextra, AprivaPay, which costs from $14.95 a month, enables businesses to process credit and debit transactions through the browser of their mobile phones. AprivaPay Professional on the other hand, costs from $19.95 a month, and requires users to download an application to their handset that can be integrated with an optional card reader and a receipt printer.

In a statement, Michael Antieri, president of the advanced enterprise mobility solutions sector at AT&T Business Solutions, said, "By offering these new mobile applications from Apriva, AT&T is helping small businesses create 'virtual storefronts' in the field, enhancing cash flow while minimising back office processes such as billing."

Mobile purchases

The past few weeks has seen a flurry of m-payment stories including the fact that PayPal's Express Checkout has introduced a mobile version of the service in order to make online purchases quick and easy for customers.

Express Checkout is known as PayPal's 'premier checkout solution' and is also used on eBay to streamline the checkout process for buyers and keep them on the merchant's site after making a purchase. With mobile payments becoming more and more popular, merchants have wanted to take advantage of the technology but admitted "getting in the game has proved difficult".

Mobile payments are expected to reach $200 billion by 2012.

Relevant articles:

Banks face mobile virus threat | Mobile Express Checkout launched | US Bank to offer P2P payments via CashEdge

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