If carriers, Google and an entourage of startups can jump into the mobile payments mess, so too can traditional payment processors. And they have the potential to make a big splash since they know the payments game and have the merchant connections.

Last week, payment processor Heartland Payments System announced it is going all mobile by launching Mobuyle, a mobile payments product heavily targeted toward the brick-and-mortar crowd as a weapon for thinning out retail, checkout lines.

By downloading a free Android app and purchasing a $75 reader, merchants are equipped with an instant POS on their mobile phones that can accept payments via credit, debit or gift cards. Some additional Mobuyle features include electronic signature capture, GPS location capture, and merchandise picture storage.

Today, I took a PowerPoint tour of Mobuyle with Steve Elefant, Heartland’s chief information officer, who outlined the features he says set Mobuyle apart from other products. Though Mobuyle certainly has Square-like tendencies, Elefant highlighted how the Heartland technology offers encryption at card swipe as one notable difference from the media darling. (It’s important to note that Heartland had a huge data breach in early 2009.) He also points out that data is not stored on the Mobuyle readers. With more malware doing “bad things” with card numbers, Elefant says the importance of encrypting at card swipe is of utmost importance.

Plus, Mobuyle’s target user audience is somewhat different than other mobile payments players in the market. Elefant tells Bank Innovation that rather than Mobuyle focusing on the 16-year-old lawn mower who only does a couple of transactions per month, its technology is targeting high-volume, brick-and-mortar stores, as well as businesses that rely on remote employees, like, say, a plumbing company. For the first target group, Mobuyle’s goal is to liberate retailers — and consumers — from long checkout lines. The second target group will benefit, Heartland says, from the technology’s off-premise processing capabilities.

Incidentally, I can testify to how lovely the consumer experience is when mobile devices thin out long checkout lines. Though I’m not certain about the technology used, the Mobuyle sensibilities seem in tune to whatever sweet technology saved me from an intimidatingly long Whole Foods line recently.

Beyond offering encryption, Elefant says Mobuyle stands apart from some of its peers by not subscribing to the one-size-fits-all price model. Rather, its fees relate to interchange and Mobuyle passes card brand fees directly to the merchant, while separately charging processing fees.

In order to get merchants using Mobuyle — one of the greatest hurdles for any mobile payment technology provider— Elefant says Heartland is relying on the payment processor’s already-on-the-ground sales team that speaks with merchants.

“Our primary channel [of driving adoption] is through relationship managers, “ Elefant tells Bank Innovation.

Plus, come yearend, Mobuyle will be made available for more than just Android devices — Mobuyle apps for Apple devices are expected to hit in the fourth quarter — which Heartland expects will further grow the product’s user base. And though most of Mobuyle’s current focus is bringing the Apple apps to life, Elefant says ongoing functionality updates are in the works, such as tailoring the app more specifically to different verticals, for example, adding in tipping functionality for restaurants.

Ultimately, Elefant identifies mobile payments as the future and adds that NFC will be part of its mobile trajectory down the road.

“Five years from now, [mobile payments] will be the prevalent and most common way merchants are doing business,” says Elefant.