Trying to solve the puzzle of point-of-sale mobile payments? Don’t worry, Loop is on the case.
Mobile wallet innovator, Loop announced today that its LoopPay ChargeCase, the company’s battery case for the iPhone 5 and 5s, is now available.
As part of a limited time promotion, customers who buy the $99 ChargeCase will get the Loop fob for free. The fob, which retails for $39, is useful for loading cards onto the Loop app. The fob can also be used as a standalone payment device, especially at hospitality locations like restaurants and bars.
What’s unique about Loop’s technology is the way the company uses short-term, short-range magnetic fields to communicate mag stripe data from the app to the POS terminal. And while the fob and ChargeCase represent the two main hardware approaches to storing the small wire that makes this magnetic field technology possible, the company is in talks with OEMs and hopes one day to have the hardware installed in phones during the manufacturing process.
Read more about Loop in our “Behind the Scenes” feature from the company’s Finovate debut this spring.
In the meanwhile, the LoopPay ChargeCase will put iPhone users that much closer to the sort of mobile wallet nirvana the industry has been promising for years. Like the fob, the charge case can work on its own, whether or not the Loop app – or the phone for that matter – is turned on. Unlike the fob, the ChargeCase of course serves another purpose, providing the iPhone with an additional 60% charge when needed.
Loop was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. Will Graylin is CEO. The company demoed its Loop app at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Jose. See a video of the company’s technology at work here.