One, security: They’re using a tokenization system similar to Apple’s, which is just inherently harder to hack than your plastic card. Those problems are finally beginning to fade away thanks to wider adoption and simpler back-end systems, but they’re not gone yet.
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“The future of mobile payments has arrived”, said InJong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, Global Head of Samsung Pay. All of the latest Samsung devices – the Note 5, S6 Edge Plus, S6 Edge and the original S6 – are equipped with the sensor.
Like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay will allow device owners to make payments in retail stores directly from their phones.
Back in February, Samsung acquired LoopPay, which developed the MST technology, and it wasted little time building it into its phones. The electronics giant bought the startup Wallner and Graylin co-founded, LoopPay, for around 0 million earlier this year. Apple Pay supports unlimited transactions if the retailer supports it, but I haven’t been able to find out if the same applies with Samsung Pay.
Samsung Pay: What is Samsung Pay?
Providing Samsung can deliver reliability, speed and simplicity, this will be a real boon for those quick payments when you don’t want to forage for your credit card.
Margaret Keane, president and CEO of Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF), the largest provider of private label credit cards in the U.S.[1], noted, “This is great news for our customers who will enjoy the benefits our cards offer when they choose to make easy and secure mobile payments with Samsung Pay”.
“Samsung Pay will reinvent how people pay for goods and services and transform how they use their smartphones”. You simply swipe up from the bottom of the display on either the sleep or home screens and the default card will appear along with a message for the user to authenticate a payment with their fingerprint.
Even better, it means that the credit card you’re using in this virtual way doesn’t have to be contactless-enabled, either.
Samsung announced Thursday that its new mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, will be available in Korea on August 20 and in the US on September 28. “This”, he says, holding up the phone, “is what we’re going for”.
There are a few places where the MST technology won’t work, namely any credit card reader that requires a physical trigger to activate the card read.
Samsung is taking a three-pronged approach to security.
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The service will also launch in the UK, Spain and – notably – China as well, although Samsung didn’t give launch dates for those countries.
