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"but I could also launch a competitor to them if I felt so inclined." Do you have the experience to make the card-reader hardware? The iOS software? Do you h
by jnovek 16y ago
"but I could also launch a competitor to them if I felt so inclined."
Do you have the experience to make the card-reader hardware? The iOS software? Do you have the cash to have the device produced for sale?
Perhaps you do have all those things at your disposal, but the vast majority of people don't. I would say that simply by virtue of being hardware, the barrier for entry is at least high enough to eliminate most of the "garage hacker" types.
- acgourley 16y agoClearly garage hackers are not their primary concern, and it's a strawman argument to imply thats what I was saying.
- dotBen 16y agoAnyone who is already in the card payments market can answer yes to those questions. And they have the advantage of already having the back end payment processing heavy lifting AND existing relationships with real customers. Sure, none of the existing players wanted to get into this space and be disrupted - or perhaps even able to come up with this creative alternative mechanism for taking benefits. But we're now seeing them take notice, switch gears and offer rival services. I'm hoping Square does well, but I think they face some stiff competition.