Square’s Card Case app is pretty nifty: It lets iPhone users pay for stuff at over 40,000 retail locations without even removing their phone from their pocket. It may be a sneak peek of the way we’ll all eventually pay for everything. But the name is — how do I put this? — lousy. It gives you little or no idea of what the app does, and it doesn’t make the connection to Square clear.
Square apparently agrees that the name isn’t so hot. It’s releasing a new version, and it’s given the program a name that’s much better: Pay With Square. The revised version has a greater emphasis on helping users find participating merchants, and the Android version, like the iPhone one, now offers the look-no-hands payment feature.
The arrival of Pay With Square comes on the heels of PayPal’s unveiling of plans to take on Square directly, both with a Card Case-like app for consumers and PayPal Here, a Square-like card swiper for phones and tablets that lets small businesses take credit cards. And it’s only been three weeks since Square itself released Square Register, an ambitious iPad app for merchants. If you pay with credit cards, or get paid with credit cards, it’s going to be fun to watch these two companies duke it out.