ERPLY, the Estonian company leading in cloud-based mobile, laptop and desktop POS and retail inventory management solution, announced a credit card reader for handheld mobile devices to deliver a fast, secure way to process payments.  The new credit card-reader device connects to an iPad (and will soon be available for iPhones), and transmits a customer’s encrypted credit card info to the ERPLY point-of-sale software and inventory management software suite to process payments.  Retailers will have a real-time view of data and inventory.

“With our mobile credit card reader, we are providing retailers with the full range of technology options they will need to accept and process payments and make real–‐time decisions that affect their business,” said Kris Hiiemaa, CEO, ERPLY.

“As technology changes, we are giving consumers the ability to pay for items the way they want to, whether it is with cash, credit cards or with NFC technologies in phones.  The ERPLY inventory management backend provides the foundation for our comprehensive POS solution, so retailers are ready for wherever the market may take us.”

The ERPLY device is available for $50 with a 1.9% transaction fee, cheaper than what Square and Verifone offers.  The device uses a magnetic strip, not a smart chip.  What differentiates ERPLY’s device from others is that it allows for NFC capabilities so customers can choose how they wish to pay for the products.  And because of the inventory management software, every transaction is easy as a sales person doesn’t need to leave the floor to check on stocks or to obtain product information, the only time to leave the floor is to retrieve the product, then again most shops have people to assigned to perform that task, so the whole transaction, from product inquiry to product payment, can be done without moving away from your station.  The receipt can then be printed or sent through text or e-mail to the customer.

The only downside of this product is that it is only available for iOS devices.  No news yet if they plan on releasing the device on Android or other OS devices.

As for other mobile payment companies, ViVotech, the NFC software and systems company, announced ViVOpay 8100, a new point of sale (POS) terminal for payments and NFC mobile commerce that could save eligible merchants more than $2 billion a year in annual Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) validation costs under a Visa Inc. initiative.  The terminals accept traditional swipe cards with magnetic stripes, chip cards, contactless cards, and NFC-enabled mobile phones, as required by the Visa initiative announced last week to accelerate the migration to Eurocard-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) contact and contactless chip technology in the United States.

VeriFone Chief Executive Officer Douglas Bergeron announced that they may spend as much as $1 billion a year on acquisitions in emerging markets and data services.

“Our second-largest growth driver is the emerging markets,” Bergeron said. “There’s something to leverage there in terms of adding more services, more capabilities. It’s a real jump ball for a company like ours that wants to take on a bigger piece of the payment ecosystem.”

After Square’s security flaws were made public at the Black Hat convention, they just released an update for iOS, version 2.1, on iPads and iPhones that brings enhanced transaction speeds, a streamlined tipping interface, added support for $0.00 price points and any purchases below $25 will no longer require a signature.  It’s an innovative industry, but one that’s still facing its ups and downs.