Square’s New Apple Pay And Chip Card Reader Available To Pre-Order

Shortly after going public, Square announced that its new card reader is now available to pre-order on its website for $49. The new reader will ship in early 2016.

It’s been a slow roll-out for the company’s new reader as Square first teased it at Apple’s WWDC in June. Compared to the good old Square reader that you put in your headphone jack, this one packs a few new features.

First, it supports Apple Pay, and potentially other contactless payment systems. It has an NFC chip and a tokenization system for secure contactless payments.

Second, the new bigger design comes with a new slot for chip cards in case you can’t pay with your phone. Finally, it’s a wireless reader that connects to your phone or tablet using Bluetooth. It has a small built-in battery and you can recharge it with a standard microUSB port.

According to Square’s website, 100 retailers are already using the new reader. But the company has yet to ship the new reader to a large pool of customers.

As chip cards are the global standard when it comes to credit card technology, Square could take advantage of this reader for international expansion. Square is available in the U.S., Canada and Japan right now.

With this new reader, it becomes much easier to convince a British retailer to switch to Square for example. There are already many European competitors, such as iZettle, Payleven and SumUp. Let’s hope that Square’s international expansion window won’t close too quickly.

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