Amazon is the latest company to move into the ultra-hot area of mobile payments with a new hardware/software combination called Amazon Local Register.

It’s essentially a credit card reader that attaches to your tablet or smartphone, and is accompanied by an app, allowing small business to take credit card payments.

Given that Amazon is sometimes criticized for putting small businesses out of, well, business, this is a particularly welcome move.

It’s not an entirely new idea. Both Square and PayPal have moved into this space before Amazon, but Amazon hopes to capture lost ground by significantly undercutting both: announcing a charge of just 1.75 percent for every payment, compared to the 2.75 percent requested by Square, and the 2.7 percent taken by PayPal Here.

This deal won’t last forever, though. Amazon has already noted a cutoff date of January 2, 2016, after which the flat rate will increase to a (still reasonable) 2.5 percent.

Amazon is offering the Amazon Local Register for $10, and is even sweetening the deal by offering a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 as part of a $380 business bundle.

A short video about Amazon Local Register can be viewed here.

Source: Engadget