?Mobile POS solutions are spreading to the U.K. Content and commerce platform Powa announced it is launching mPowa, a Square-like credit card reader and application that turns smartphones into credit card terminals. Like Square and Intuit's GoPayment in the U.S., the tool is aimed at giving small businesses in the U.K. the ability to accept credit and debit cards for payment.

According to Powa, the new mPowa mobile POS solution will not only help small businesses capture lost revenue, but will also stimulate local businesses in Britain.

"Since the financial crisis, all small business people have heard is doom and gloom," said mPowa CEO Dan Wagner. "We hope to bring them some resounding good news going into 2012 with an easy to use technology that will make their businesses faster and significantly more attractive to customers."

The application and reader are both free and merchants pay .25 percent per transaction. The application is available for iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and Blackberry devices.

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