Another giant enters the mobile payment wars

8/13/2015

New York -- Move over Apple and Google — and make way for Samsung.



Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday announced Samsung Pay, a mobile payment service that will let customers pay with their phones at nearly any credit-card terminal. The new system will launch in Korea on Aug. 20 and in the United States on Sept. 28.



Unlike Apple’s Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay which must use near field communication sensors to interact with point-of-sale systems at stores, Samsung is using a new technology called “Magnetic Secure Transmission” that will allow Samsung Pay phones to communicate with the magnetic strip reader typically found in credit card terminals around the country (Samsung Pay also supports NFC).



Samsung made the announcement at an event in New York where it unveiled its newest flagship devices: the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5.



“With the launches of these exciting new smartphones, we will open a new era of mobile payment,” said JK Shin, the CEO and head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “This is Samsung’s brave step forward to enhance our mobile experience. It is easy, safe, and most importantly, available virtually anywhere you can swipe a card, in most cases without new costs for merchants, from day one.”



Similar to other mobile payment systems, with the new Samsung Pay, customers will use their fingerprint to confirm a purchase after put put their phone near the store’s POS system.



Samsung Pay will be preloaded on select Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices and a free software upgrade will be rolled out beginning mid-August, to enable Samsung Pay on Galaxy S6 and S6 edge phones.



For more on Samsung Pay, click here.


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