Samsung said to be planning a mobile payments system to rival Apple Pay
Samsung is reportedly planning to launch a mobile payments system with the forthcoming release of its Samsung Galaxy S6 device.
The handset will debut at the Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain, next month.
It was previously reported that Samsung would be launching a payments system in 2015, after allegedly teaming up with mobile wallet service LoopPay. Though unverified at the time, the claims have since been confirmed by DDaily (via Tech Times).
Few details are known about the system, though it is thought the fingerprint sensor included on select Samsung models would be used for authentification in much the same way as on Apple devices.
LoopPay is a service that allows shoppers to upload credit cards onto a secure app, subsequently using it to pay for items via various platforms.
The service would go up against Apple Pay, which was unveiled late last year and is considered a success, being adopted by the majority of leading banks and credit card companies following its launch.
This will be a barrier to Samsung Pay, as only Visa has currently agreed to work with LoopPay. On the other hand, using the technology, Samsung Pay would be compatible with both NFC and older magnetic strips, giving it an edge over Apple.
The system would, however, use the same tokenisation security feature as Apple Pay, which hides customers’ credit card details by generating a random number for each individual transaction.
Samsung Wallet has already been launched in South Korea and China, Tech Times points out, having launched back in 2013 in partnership with UnionPay.
