These two articles talk about a recent partnership/promotion between Square Reader and Apple Pay. The articles go over what the promotion is, reasons for it, and why it may make sense for both companies.
Last week, I talked about how the retail industry hasn’t fully embraced mobile payments. Here, we have two companies working together to possibly change that trend. It is mentioned that Square merchants can educate and expand the use of Apple Pay (and by extension, mobile payments in general), which could allow Square to gain a greater foothold in a market that it helped grow. The partnership indicates that Square has some confidence in the potential growth of mobile payments systems, and that they are willing to take a likely short term monetary loss (from increased costs and loss of swipe fees) for future gains. It is also interesting that Square might be disrupting itself, since it’s core business relates to physical cards, and not mobile payments.
I think on paper, the deal makes sense, but it does carry some risk on Square’s part (not as much on Apple’s part). The merchants affected by the promotion might be too small to make a difference, and for a company that already has a cost problem, increasing costs with the new readers might not be the best idea.
Square And Apple: Who Is The Big Winner Of Their Payments Pair-Up?
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-free-apple-pay-could-help-grow-square-2017-2