Erply Enters Mobile Card Readers Market

There’s a new mobile credit card reader on the market, and this one is designed mostly for tablets like the iPad.

The latest device comes from Erply, a company based in Estonia that also makes software to manage inventory in stores. It costs $50 to buy the reader, plus $70 a month for small retailers, according to the company’s website. That’s slightly less than what is charged by Square, which also offers a card reader for mobile phones.

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Unlike Square, which plugs into the headphone jack of iPads and iPhones, Erply will connect using the iPad’s charger port. A new version of the Erply device will be ready for iPhones in three months, American Banker reports.

One reason why mobile payment devices like Square and Erply are proliferating is cost, Kris Hiiemaa, founder of Erply, tells the BBC.

“Small businesses can easily adopt tablets because of the very low price point,” Hiiemaa said. “A tablet starts from $500, compared to conventional cash registers that are PC-based starting from $2000, so it’s definitely much cheaper.”

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Image: www.erply.com