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Samsung Pay could be heading to non-Samsung phones — report
Mobile payments services have been gathering momentum in the past few years, but they still have a long way to go before they completely replace our wallets. Samsung, however, is reportedly looking to push the technology further into the mainstream by making its Samsung Pay service available across various brands of handsets.
According to Gadgets360, citing a source familiar with the developments, Samsung has already reached out to other OEMs about broadening the range of devices that can make use of the service.
Currently, Samsung Pay is only available on a handful of the Korean manufacturer’s handsets. Up until recently, the service was a flagship-exclusive feature, but mid-range handsets have also now started supporting it. For it to work, the devices need to include both NFC and Samsung’s proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technologies. The first allows users to pay with their phones at any NFC-enabled POS terminal, while the second is designed to mimic the traditional magnetic strip of credit and debit cards, which allows it to work with any card terminal in any retail store.
Samsung Pay has quite an advantage over its two main competitors
Samsung Pay has quite an advantage over its two main competitors. Android Pay and Apple Pay only support NFC, which means that they can’t communicate with traditional magnetic card readers. This severely limits their application, especially in developing countries where NFC POS terminals are not as common. So, it makes perfect sense for some smartphone manufacturers to be interested in Samsung’s service, since it will add a lot of value to their handsets.
Gadgets360 also suggests that Samsung is exploring the possibility of developing an external accessory with MST capabilities. This would allow smartphones that lack the necessary hardware to still make use of the technology. Such a move would probably help the Korean conglomerate increase the adoption of Samsung Pay a fair bit, as users won’t need to buy a brand new phone to enjoy the service.
However, it’s highly unlikely for Samsung to target iOS users. Back in December, the Korean news site ET News reported that Apple had rejected the then-unreleased Samsung Pay Mini app from its App Store for unspecified reasons. That same report also stated that Samsung will be focusing on Android only moving forward and will not add iOS to its mobile payments strategy.
If you want to find out how Samsung Pay stacks up against Apple Pay and Android Pay, check out our comparison article at the link above.