Mophie: Another Point of Sale Application for iPhone?

Here’s another sign that Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices could become point of sale (POS) solutions for VARs and their end-customers. Mophie, an iPhone accessory creator, is releasing a new product called the Mophie Marketplace. It features a magnetic strip reader and some software that could transform the iPhone into a point of sale device. But Apple has already made a similar point of sale move. How do the two efforts differ? Here’s some quick analysis.

The Mophie jacket (pictured) contains the strip reader in the bottom of the device, whereas the Apple device featured the reader parallel with the screen and hidden behind the iPhone. There’s also the absence of the barcode reader.

But other than that, the Mophie ad-on device performs nearly the same point-of-sale (POS) function as Apple’s approach. Although the Apple POS hasn’t been used outside the Apple store itself, we’ve speculated that Apple could enter the POS market.

Perhaps Mophie plans to beati Apple at its own game?

Granted, we can’t really make an apples to apples comparison (no pun intended) on software and hardware, but it’s worth noting that there’s another contender in the marketplace. The Mophie site doesn’t have any details on the device, since it’s not quite out yet, and the Apple device hasn’t been in the hands of anyone who can pull it apart. Nevertheless, we wonder: Will the Mophie Marketplace be popping up at independent vendors and stores nationwide?

In the meantime, Mophie’s partner program is designed mainly for retail partners rather than VARs and solutions providers. We wonder if that will change as the POS attachment comes to market.