A company called Advanced Merchant Solutions has launched a payment solution for the Android platform, enabling on-the-go merchants to accept credit cards anywhere. The dedicated application, available for download from the Android Market, can be used with the company’s Pocket Spectrum Plus, which is a Bluetooth 2-track card reader and thermal receipt printer. Coupled together this software-hardware combo, which also combines merchant and gateway account, allows any mobile business user to avoid the high cost of “card-not-present” transactions.
To put it in other words, what Advanced Merchant Solutions has made is a Bluetooth-connected version of Square for Android smartphones. Many people believe such systems (enabling payments while on-the-go) have a bright future and in that sense I would expect to see more similar services being introduced for various platforms in due course.
In the meantime, you may care to know what else is included in the so called Pocket Spectrum Plus package. In addition to the mentioned 2-track magnetic stripe reader and a rugged thermal printer, there are also interchangeable lithium-ion batteries, a quick-charge adaptor, and a leather case with integral belt clip…