This is clearly an Apples to Oranges comparison (not trying for the irony).Completely different approach to the market.

Completely different propositions to the merchant.

However, there is a place for both products in the marketplace as well as the 100s of others in the market and no doubt entering into the market.

Now that the bloom is off the rose with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad being used to accept card payments, deeper review shows the apps and card readers fall into 2 basic categories

1) New players desiring to change the ultimate status quo in the payments industry.

2) Entrenched players that are extending in to this segment with traditional merchant accounts.

There is some crossover in limited circumstances, but the dividing line is fairly clear.

Square has very bright and talented engineers and I dare say, Genius management. There is no doubt that Square clearly falls in to category 1 as mentioned above. The current app and reader is laser focused to a relatively large and unserved market with just the right mix of the hardware to software ratio.

Square does not pretend to be all things to all merchants and this is one of the great strengths that seems to be lost on many who review how Square fits in to the card payments space. The market approach and business calculus used can drive an upward wedge into the next strata of merchants fairly successfully with the current product.

However, as Square meets the wider market and more traditional merchants, translation of the current version of the product and the current marketing and feature set is likely to be muted in the loud hum of 1000s of competing card payment products and services.

Opportunities for Square at that next stage are potentially boundless with the expert tutelage in the executive suite. I do suggest that many of the potential market breakthroughs could be obscured to Square as they may be moved to be reactionary to this larger market rather then some glaringly large revolutions that they could lead.