3 ms·

Presumably companies like Square and Clover are selling their own POS hardware and probably are less than happy that every iPad and iPhone running latest OS wit

Presumably companies like Square and Clover are selling their own POS hardware and probably are less than happy that every iPad and iPhone running latest OS with NFC is now a competitor to their hardware. Stripe does not make hardware (as far as I’m aware) so this initial partnership makes sense.

mojzu 5y ago
I'd imagine for these companies the hardware is a necessity to get customers into their payment processing business, could even be a loss leader rather then a profit centre. If a lot more people now have a potential POS device in their pocket it could expand their markets quite a bit, although other payment processors who formerly didn't want to or couldn't make hardware may now become competitors
ritwikr 5y ago
Stripe does have a physical terminal too (https://stripe.com/terminal https://stripe.com/terminal) but I've never seen it at a merchant.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  Huh, I did not know that, I’ve also never seen one out in the wild.
  - bduerst 5y ago
    You probably have. They're completely non-desccript and unbranded, unlike most other POS solutions, so you're likely to not remember it.
  - jackson1442 5y ago
    I just recently noticed some- Jimmy John's uses the stripe Verifone reader and Toast tablets use the BBPOS Chipper (but this may not be thru stripe). These readers are "stripe-compatible," but not exclusively for stripe.
  - alephnan 5y ago
    2018: "Square become Stripe, while Stripe becomes Square" Stripe's bread and butter is payment backends, while Square was the point-of-sales system https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18007454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18007454
scarface74 5y ago
No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. They only do so when forced to support their services. Software scales with a marginal cost of $0 and is much less messy. Before smart phones and generic hardware was a thing, I worked at a company that wrote software for field services (“sending people places to do things”) we had to resell and maintain custom ruggedized windows mobile devices, mobile satellite receivers (cell phone data wasn’t reliable), etc. We were glad to transition to generic smart phones. At later jobs, when I worked in the same space, we used generic Samsung Android tablets. Microsoft doesn’t even really care if you buy an XBox, it’s a loss leader. They would be more than happy if you bought their subscription gaming service and ran it on someone else’s hardware.
- axg11 5y ago
  > No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. You're right, but it's a strategic mistake. Hardware comes with more loyalty and brand awareness. How many consumers are aware of Square (cute little hardware squircle) vs Stripe? That brand awareness allowed Square to launch Cash App. I think this extends to the rest of big tech too. Amazon and Facebook would do well to learn from this. Amazon and Facebook's most favourably viewed products are all hardware (Alexa, Kindle, Oculus)
  - scarface74 5y ago
    Amazon doesn’t care if you buy a no margin Alexa device. They will gladly license Alexa to all comers. Kindle is available everywhere. People are “loyal” to Kindle not because of the device that relatively few buy, but because their whole library is tied to the Kindle app that runs everywhere.
- echelon 5y ago
  No software company wants Apple to be anywhere near their business either. Apple greedily takes 30% and owns your customers. Apple is bad for business. When they come to your industry, be afraid.
  - 5y ago

mojzu 5y ago

I'd imagine for these companies the hardware is a necessity to get customers into their payment processing business, could even be a loss leader rather then a profit centre. If a lot more people now have a potential POS device in their pocket it could expand their markets quite a bit, although other payment processors who formerly didn't want to or couldn't make hardware may now become competitors

ritwikr 5y ago

Stripe does have a physical terminal too (https://stripe.com/terminal https://stripe.com/terminal) but I've never seen it at a merchant.

SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
Huh, I did not know that, I’ve also never seen one out in the wild.
- bduerst 5y ago
  You probably have. They're completely non-desccript and unbranded, unlike most other POS solutions, so you're likely to not remember it.
- jackson1442 5y ago
  I just recently noticed some- Jimmy John's uses the stripe Verifone reader and Toast tablets use the BBPOS Chipper (but this may not be thru stripe). These readers are "stripe-compatible," but not exclusively for stripe.
- alephnan 5y ago
  2018: "Square become Stripe, while Stripe becomes Square" Stripe's bread and butter is payment backends, while Square was the point-of-sales system https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18007454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18007454

scarface74 5y ago

No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. They only do so when forced to support their services. Software scales with a marginal cost of $0 and is much less messy. Before smart phones and generic hardware was a thing, I worked at a company that wrote software for field services (“sending people places to do things”) we had to resell and maintain custom ruggedized windows mobile devices, mobile satellite receivers (cell phone data wasn’t reliable), etc. We were glad to transition to generic smart phones. At later jobs, when I worked in the same space, we used generic Samsung Android tablets. Microsoft doesn’t even really care if you buy an XBox, it’s a loss leader. They would be more than happy if you bought their subscription gaming service and ran it on someone else’s hardware.

axg11 5y ago
> No software company wants to sell hardware outside of Apple. You're right, but it's a strategic mistake. Hardware comes with more loyalty and brand awareness. How many consumers are aware of Square (cute little hardware squircle) vs Stripe? That brand awareness allowed Square to launch Cash App. I think this extends to the rest of big tech too. Amazon and Facebook would do well to learn from this. Amazon and Facebook's most favourably viewed products are all hardware (Alexa, Kindle, Oculus)
- scarface74 5y ago
  Amazon doesn’t care if you buy a no margin Alexa device. They will gladly license Alexa to all comers. Kindle is available everywhere. People are “loyal” to Kindle not because of the device that relatively few buy, but because their whole library is tied to the Kindle app that runs everywhere.
echelon 5y ago
No software company wants Apple to be anywhere near their business either. Apple greedily takes 30% and owns your customers. Apple is bad for business. When they come to your industry, be afraid.
- 5y ago