Mobile consumer payment solutions are starting to emerge and proliferate. The flip side of that development is small business smartphone-based credit card acceptance and processing. Many people are familiar with Square and its smarpthone credit-card swiping hardware. This enables anyone -- SMB or consumer -- to easily accept a credit card on the spot with a smartphone.

Intuit has a small business payments platform (GoPayment) that integrates with QuickBooks. It's really a PayPal competitor. The product has been in the market for a year. Fees are $12.95 a month, plus a 1.7% to 3.7% commission and $0.30 to $0.34 per transaction fee. Now Intuit has teamed up with Mophie to offer an intelligent case (and software) that enables the iPhone -- like Square -- to swipe a credit card. (Previously credit card numbers were manually keyed in.)

Per the release:

The speedy new Intuit Merchant Account application process is designed to let small business owners easily and quickly apply and be approved to start processing credit cards. A user can apply from the GoPayment App, online or by calling Intuit right from their iPhone.

By adding the sleek, clip-on mophie marketplace card reader, merchants can save time by securely swiping credit cards instead of entering numbers by hand. After swiping the card, data is immediately encrypted using Intuit’s industry-standard security methods.

Customers authorize the payment by signing their name on the iPhone touch screen. The merchant can then send them an e-mail or text receipt. GoPayment processes the credit card within seconds and funds are deposited into the businesses’ bank account.

Square doesn't require monthly fees but takes a higher percentage of the transaction than Intuit GoPayment. The decision of which system to use will be driven by the volume of credit cards being processed and the average transaction values. QuickBooks integration may also be determinative for some.