In 2010, Your iPhone Could Be a Credit Card Reader - This "new hardware" to me is a misconception and en error. iPhone itself should be - and, practically is - BOTH credit card /cc/ reader and credit card itself.
WHY to carry another piece, a cc? That would be so 2009nish. SERVER, SOFTWARE ought to do it, and can do it, all. That is the only correct, and lowest costs, solution path.
Customers will setup their credit cards with PayServer, tied to their IPhone/cpu unique id and their password.
'CC Reader" iPhone will display the merchandise, the amount to be paid, and/or any other info, and an ID code/bar, QR?/, readable to PayServer.
"CC Customer" iPhone will "Take a snapshot" of this info, and this will constitute, for any and all purposes, a swipe of the card.
Why the heck to require physical presence of a credit card, a physical presence on a cc reader, and plus the physical act of swiping the card ?? It would be a half mad mistaken anachronism bordering on ridiculousness.
There is more solutions to this act of software cyber cc payment, none with redundant environment unfriendly material of plastic and swiper. Example, without any setup, cc reader /merchant/ iPhone will take a snapshot of customer cc in the form of a passworded cc picture displayed on customer iPhone. Then, a request for approval will arrive on customer iPhone.
NO other iPhone will be able to approve the transaction. It is possible to fortify the security via connecting the ccc - customer credit card - to their iPhone cpu id, to their email login, and/or even to GPS position of both customer and merchant /ccr/ iPhones. ... JUST, NO additional hardware, please ! -We are Americans. :]
In 2010, Your iPhone Could Be a Credit Card Reader