The arresting close-ups of dramatically lighted credit cards, fingers punching PIN numbers into A.T.M.'s, and store clerks swiping cards through credit terminals soon devolve into cliché.
But the system was built to serve a broader group of users than small merchants like Muir who already have some kind of mobile credit card terminal.
There are seven million American business owners who, like Muir, already have a credit card terminal but want a better way to process mobile payments.
To add insult to injury, the lease on our credit card terminal ended in June and the bank representative who called me about it was very unpleasant.
When a friend from California had managed to order, he was handed the credit card terminal, which showed the amount and the option to add something for service.
Yet they are often compelled to linger, firstly to attract the attention of a waiter, and then to wait as a credit card terminal is brought to their table.It is a problem Tom Weaver recognises well.
"The smartphone is the catalyst for a lot of change in this industry," says Dana Stalder, a venture capitalist with Matrix Partners and a former eBay and PayPal executive now on the board of Poynt, which recently introduced a smart credit card terminal.
But what First Data brings is its credit card terminal customers, which no other players are able to leverage.
E-commerce company Merchant Focus Processing and Inner Fence have acquired AppNinjas, creator of Swipe Credit Card Terminal for iPhone (formerly iSwipe).
They started off as a replacement for a traditional credit card terminal, and on the other side of the market, with an iPad cash register," he said.
