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Square announces affordable Apple Pay reader for small businesses

Mobile payment company Square has announced a new mobile card reader that’s compatible with Apple Pay.

Apple offered an update on its mobile payment system at its WWDC keynote last night, which will include the service expanding to the UK in July.

Another new development to emerge from WWDC was Apple’s partnership with Square, which produces affordable payment systems for small businesses.

Sure enough, Square has used the occasion to announce a new wireless reader that’s compatible with Apple Pay.

Square calls the reader “its most powerful card reader yet.” It can enable small businesses to accept contactless payments of all varieties, including of course Apple Pay. EMV chip cards are also compatible.

To launch its new device, Square is offering 250,000 of these readers for free, but for the rest it’ll be available for $49.

We say “the rest,” but as per usual with Square it’ll only be available in the U.S. The company hasn’t expanded to Europe as yet, despite launching devices last year that would theoretically be compatible with European payment standards.

Related: Barclays won’t be supporting Apple Pay in the UK

We can think of plenty of independent cafes and boutique shops that will be hoping iZettle launches a similar device for the launch of Apple Pay in the UK, though it might just wait for a wider European rollout of Apple’s service first.

The new Square Reader will be shipping to US customers some time this autumn.

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