From CNET: Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a new mobile card reader, pushing the online retailer deeper into payment services and up against the likes of Square and eBay's PayPal.
The new service, called Local Register, will allow businesses to swipe credit and debit cards using their mobile devices along with the reader and a mobile app.
The effort moves Amazon into the fast-growing mobile card-reader space, where several companies are already competing, and pits it against long-time card-reader companies such as Verifone. The new service, which comes after Amazon launched a mobile wallet app last month, should also provide the company with helpful data on how consumers shop offline.
The initiative illustrates that Amazon is showing no signs of slowing its aggressive expansion plans, despite that work resulting in some quarterly losses. The company has been spending on original content for its Prime streaming-video service, and this year it introduced a new smartphone, the Fire Phone, and a set-top box, Fire TV.
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