Kavitha Aunty Boothu Kathalu
Samsung Pay is the Korean company’s latest foray into the world of mobile payments. And one which might just have the edge over its long-time time rival Apple’s service, Apple Pay, which launched in North America last year.
See, as well as using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow users of its new Galaxy S6 smartphone to pay for goods in–store, Samsung Pay also works with old–style magnetic strips.
This is likely to be particularly handy in the US where NFC and chip and pin adoption rates remains sluggish.
It comes just weeks after Samsung announced it had acquired the firm LoopPay, a company which makes hardware to allow contactless payments on non–NFC machines.
Samsung Pay will utilise the Galaxy S6’s new Touch ID–like fingerprint scanner, giving improved security to users.
In the past, Samsung has inked deals with PayPal to try and bolster its mobile payments profile, while its phones also work with Google Wallet in the States.
Samsung Pay, however, represents the biggest ever improvement in the Korean company’s payments offering.
The service is set to launch this summer.