Samsung working on Apple Pay competitor

Samsung working on Apple Pay competitor

As far as mobile payments go, Apple Pay has been a success since its launch. Where others failed to gain traction, Apple's offering has gone from strength to strength adding more retailers, banks and card issuers regularly. Now, it has come to light that Samsung is working on its own mobile payments service, according to a report by Re/code. The Korean...

Samsung working on Apple Pay competitor
As far as mobile payments go, Apple Pay has been a success since its launch. Where others failed to gain traction, Apple’s offering has gone from strength to strength adding more retailers, banks and card issuers regularly.

Now, it has come to light that Samsung is working on its own mobile payments service, according to a report by Re/code. The Korean smartphone manufacturer is said to be in talks with payments startup LoopPay about the system which would help the firm launch the service in 2015 to compete with rival Apple.

It is not yet clear if Samsung has reached a deal with the startup, Burlington, Mass.-based LoopPay. One source said the deal could still fall apart. A prototype of the payments system working on a Samsung phone has been created, the other source said.

The Samsung/LoopPay service would potentially allow customers to wave their optimized Samsung devices over payment terminals rather than swiping and signing. The service could potentially be used in more locations than Apple Pay thanks to LoopPay’s technology. Instead of requiring NFC-enabled payment terminals, LoopPay mimics traditional magnetic stripe technology meaning it would be supported in a larger number of stores. However, Samsung’s service would most likely leverage NFC for processing payments too, according to the report, as swiping tech is set to be phased out over time.

Similar to Apple Pay, Samsung’s offering will likely make use of tokenization for secure payments and the fingerprint sensors on newer Samsung flagship devices.

LoopPay’s CEO Will Grayling previously told Re/code that his company’s technology would be incorporated into a mainstream smartphone next year that would have “massive penetration” although he declined to comment on the Samsung story.

Is a mobile payment service a new table stake in the smartphone battle? Can Samsung follow where Apple has led or will its service be a gimmick? Let us know your thoughts below or grab me on Twitter:

Source: Re/code

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