Square Comes Up With A Way To Do Without NFC

With all the hype about NFC being created, you would think that more and more manufacturers and developers would be rushing to embrace the technology. It does not look that way with Square as they seem to have come up with an alternative solution to NFC technology, thanks to virtual “tabs”.

What they have done is that they seem to have taken a page out of Apple’s new retail stores by using an iPhone or iPad to act as a cash register. Customers will then provide their name and their details and the person behind the “cash register” will verify the purchase and the customer will receive the receipt either via e-mail or by text. The credit card transaction will be done behind the scenes.

This is for existing customers, so for new customers they’d have to make a purchase first with the company/restaurant with their credit card before they are granted access to Square’s Card Case which is part of their app. The Card Case will contain virtual credit cards to the various institutions that you have patronized in the past.

While a pretty interesting idea I don’t see this overtaking NFC. Based on my understanding of this service it seems that you will need to make credit card purchases with the company at least once before it is stored as a virtual credit card, and this is assuming we regularly frequent the establishment, so this isn’t a very convenient service compared to NFC. Secondly not everyone owns a credit card but chances of someone owning a smartphone seems to be more likely. Also who’s to prevent the he-say and she-say situations that could arise from this system?