Square, the much-hyped mobile credit card processing system created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has a big problem: it doesn’t work with the iPhone4.
In a blog post buried deep in the support section of Square’s website, the company acknowledges that the Square card reader interferes with the already problematic iPhone4 antenna.
“This renders our card readers inactive for your iPhone4,” the company wrote on October 9. “We are working on redesigning our card readers and will be contacting our iPhone4 users as soon as they are ready for shipment.”
Update: Square has clearly been scrambling for a fix for awhile now. The day after this post was published, they emailed to say that, “As of today, we have shipped new card readers to to active users who are accessing Square via an iPhone 4.”
It’s not clear if this is partly why Square, which also works on older iPhones, the iPad and Android, delayed its full roll-out earlier this year.
But with Square producing as many as 10,000 card readers a day, this appears to be a major design flaw that is likely affecting a huge number of Square users — especially as Apple shipped 14.1m new iPhones in the latest quarter.
Indeed, support forums have been abuzz with the issue, and users are sharing tips on how to jerry-rig the card reader with household items like nail polish remover and a Q-Tip. In its own post, Square suggests using a small piece of paper to fix the problem, and cleaning the iPhone4′s headphone jack with a toothpick if needed.
For the small businessperson, such options must seem amateurish. As one commenter said, “How professional is to to hack your money-taking device with a piece of paper? So you’re taking money from a new customer and it looks all ghetto, not exactly confidence inspiring.”
We’ve given Mr Dorsey credit for his entrepreneurial spirit in the past, and Square is a young company. But with no credible fix for the problem so far, and no word on when iPhone4-compatible card readers will be shipped, Square’s utility might have to be reassessed.
In the meantime, Square might consider notifying potential customers that its product doesn’t work with Apple’s best selling iPhone. And though it won’t look as sleek, it might also modify the image on the home page of its website, pictured above, to include a scrap of paper and a toothpick.
