Square's name, design influenced by a meeting at Apple For a while now it's been known that the popular iPhone credit card payment system known as Square was originally known by a different name and had a very different look.
The familiar white plastic square-shaped plug-in dongle was originally made of wood and shaped like an acorn (no joke) and its name was "Squirrel." However, the current name and shape of the credit card reader we all know and love came about after Square CEO Jack Dorsey had a lunch at Apple's Café Mac.
On Wednesday night, according to TNW, Dorsey told the attendees of San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, where he was accepting the 21st Century Visionary award, that he was set on the "Squirrel" name until he was having lunch with Apple's senior vice president of iPhone Software Scott Forstal. Dorsey noticed that the point-of-sale system used in Café Mac was from "Squirrel Systems" so he had to change the name of his device.
While Dorsey didn't say Forestall had anything to do with the change of the dongle's shape, it's easy to assume that the Apple's SVP took one look at the wooden acorn and said "I have a better idea."
Square first launched in 2010 and just a few days ago announced that it has shipped 500,000 Square card readers and processed 1 million transactions in May to the tune of about US$3 million worth of mobile payments a day.Square's name, design influenced by a meeting at Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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