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Johannesburg - A South African entrepreneur aims carving up high costs associated with the mobile point-of-sale market by piloting a “world-first” smart-device dubbed the ‘Blade’.
Stafford Masie, who previously headed up Google South Africa, is launching the Blade via his company ‘Thumbzup’, which earlier this year partnered with banking giant Absa in rolling out the ‘Payment Pebble’ in South Africa.
The Pebble costs R50 per month, works with a special mobile app, and plugs in onto a merchant’s smartphone audio jack to accept MasterCard or Visa debit and credit card payments
And months after launching in SA, the Pebble has reached “north of 5 000” users, Masie told Fin24.
But Masie said that while the Pebble is successful and works with 95% of all smartphones, an evolution was needed to escape the need for a separate costly phone and even other expenses such as data plans.
Hence, his company developed the Blade: A low-cost Android equipped smart device attached to the Pebble. The Blade also has a built-in hidden GSM module which, like the popular Amazon Kindle e-book readers, helps it connect via a configured Access Point Name (APN) gateway over a cellular network.
Masie told Fin24 that the product is being piloted with a planned launch in the first quarter of 2015. The Blade plus the Pebble is expected to cost R70-80 per month.
"This (the Blade) from a functionality perspective is a world-first: There's nothing like it in the world," Masie told Fin24.
"It's the only mobile point-of-solution solution at its price-point - and at its capability and its functionality - that doesn't require an external device. It just connects," he said.
Above: Thumbzup outlines a price-comparison for the Blade with other mobile point-of-sale options. (Thumbzup)
Other features of the device include a five megapixel camera with auto focus for activities such as stock-taking and a bar-code scanner.
Security features for the Blade also rest with the Pebble attachment, which uses, for example, scroll-wheel PIN-entry technology.
Thumbzup plans for the Blade to be launched in the first quarter of 2015. The company already has partnerships with South Africa’s Absa and Australian bank ANZ for the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the long term, Masie said the Blade will also be targeted at the US and Japan. Masie further told Fin24 that the name of the Blade stems from ‘cutting’ through opinions that the development of such a device would be extremely difficult.
"When we started with the Blade, everybody said it was impossible,” Masie said.
"The origin of it is that it's cutting through negativity, it's cutting through the naysayers," he added.
