Are iPhone/iPad Plugin Devices Today’s External Webcams? Yep.

A few days ago I attended the Vivienne Tam fashion show with a friend. Her company was a sponsor, so we got the star treatment—backstage access, front-row seats, all that. While doing our thing backstage, I spotted a tall, blonde model (what are the chances?), surrounded by photographers. She was posing with an iPhone that had a thing popping out of it. In one pose she seemed to be blowing on the thing like it was a dandelion. In the next, it looked like she was getting ready to take a bite from a digital lollipop.

When we went to sit down, I shuffled through the red folder on my seat only to find that it included one of the things, along with an explanation. The thing was the new Square—created by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and designed, this particular version at least, by Vivenne Tam. The square is a “revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards.” Just stick the Square card reader into your mobile device—iPhone, iPad or Droid, for now—and voilà, you are now able to swipe credit cards and run your own mobile business. It seemed cool enough, but only for a second. Isn’t the whole point of mobile to be convenient?  Is the average person—the casual vendor, the late night bar tab-splitter or everyday garage-sale merchant (all of whom comprise the brand’s target audience)—really going to remember to carry this little device around with them? And risk looking a little odd as they transform their phone into a kiosk? (I do believe this is grounds for a bar brawl in some states.)

While the idea of accepting credit cards with a smart phone is a great one, it’s definitely not a new one.  We have clients who use their phones and tablets to sell books at conferences and process payments at tradeshows, and there are thousands of entrepreneurs out there who rely solely on their phones/tablets to sell their wares on the go. This has been going on for a while, yet it’s never required plugging anything into the device itself. That’s because there are already plenty of apps out there that allow you to accept credit cards…without a thing sticking out of your phone.

I immediately thought about the old “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercial where the PC (John Hodgman) has a web cam taped to his head to illustrate the silliness of having basic accessories sticking out of your computer when they can be built in. The commercial came out a little over four years ago, and from that point on, the idea of having anything stick out of your computer became antiquated. When Apple launched the iPhone, they no doubt carried over this vision, with only a few exceptions: headphones, the Apple TV cord, and apps that absolutely require the outside assistance of an accessory (like a portable blood pressure cuff, because apparently there are some things that even the iPhone can’t accomplish on its own).

Hell, according to Adrants, there’s now even an app that allows you to turn your iPhone into a vibrator…and not even that requires a cord. Now, that’s what I call innovation.

But there’s no way that Vivienne and Jack (can I call ya that?) didn’t take all of this into consideration going into Square.  So, I did a little research to figure out what, if anything, makes this tangible little device a wise addition to an otherwise virtual market…

From what I can tell, Square’s current market differentiators are three-fold:

But these differentiators don’t negate Square’s fatal flaw, which is the fact that it’s a thing that plugs into the actual device. This flaw will no doubt be its demise, and a goldmine to the company that resolves it. Perhaps Apple themselves? Enter NFC (Near Field Communications), a technology that is actually being built into new versions of mobile devices and will eliminate the need for plugin-type solutions like Square. (I knew it!)

Ah, that felt good…

So, while the Square is true to Vivienne’s platform (she’s applied her admittedly stunning aesthetics to other technology, like the netbook, and supports women in their pursuit of growing their businesses), and falls in line with the type of project we’ve come to expect from Jack (technological stuff)—it’s completely off-platform for Apple products, which is half the puzzle. Or the missing piece, in this case.

This all, of course, begs the question: Why would Vivienne and Jack create an accessory that’s so obviously antithetical to Apple’s vision? Well, because there’s a market for it—at least in the short term. Until people realize that they don’t need it, there’s something satisfying about this tangible and useful little thing. It’s also pretty aesthetically pleasing with its “Double Happiness” design and all.

Instead of launching into a list of 10 things one must take into consideration when designing device-specific mobile apps and accessories, I’m just going to keep it simple: when developing your next app, think not only about your platform, think also about the device’s platform—whether the iPhone, iPad, Droid, Blackberry, whatever it is.

All of that said, I’m sure Viv and Jack will see success with this. There are thousands of potential vendors out there who will think this is a fabulous innovation. It’s portable, it’s convenient…it’s totally unnecessary (and pretty costly when you start to add up the cost for each transaction). But, oh well, there are plenty of people who don’t know any better, and they’re the ones who will simply eat this thing up.