Clearly, Square grabbed all sorts of first-mover advantage in the mobile payment battle. The little Square attachment for iPhone has been out for some time, allowing any merchant from big store to street vendor to take credit cards. The recent iPad edition, however, is the bigger game changer since it potentially eliminates the need to buy a traditional (very expensive) cash register.
PayPal isn’t ready to cede this market entirely, however, and its going to launch its own mobile payment system at an event on Thursday, reports GigaOm. Besides being a known name and getting a toehold in a new market space, PayPal has to be aware that Square makes a 2.5% commission on each sale made through the system, which is pretty sweet.