Amazon is about to launch its own credit card reading hardware, according to a recent report.
9to5Mac has received a document said to be from office supply retailer Staples, which shows that a new Amazon Card Reader is incoming.
This Amazon Card Reader will apparently sit alongside similar efforts from PayPal and Square, allowing users to hook it up to their smartphone and process card payments on the fly. It will cost just $9.99, which works out to £5.88.
The news comes shortly after Amazon launched an Amazon Wallet app for iOS and Android (and of course the Amazon Fire Phone), which initially lets you scan and store all of your loyalty cards on your phone. In future, it will allow you to do the same for your debit and credit cards.
It appears likely that this new Amazon Card Reader will hook up with the expanded Amazon Wallet app to facilitate simple card payments through Amazon.
According to the report, Staples has asked store to hold off publishing any information on the Amazon Card Reader until August 12, pointing to a possible release date for the hardware.
All of this fits in with rumours earlier in the year that Amazon was set to expand into offering a point-of-sale payment system to accompany its online one.
Of course, all of this – the Card Reader, the Wallet app, and indeed the Amazon Fire Phone – is US-only at present, so we’ll keep an eye out for any signs of a wider roll-out.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.