Samsung Pay, Samsung's answer to Apple Pay, is apparently going to be released towards the end of the year according to an official statement made by one of its executives.
"The consecutive release schedule to the rest of the other countries following Korea and the US in the second half of the year is still under discussion. The compatibility option with the smart watch will only be disclosed during the launch," Samsung Electronics' managing director Park Jin-Young said in the statement obtained by Korean news site WhowiredKorea.
The statement confirmed the release of the Samsung Pay service, as well as the company possibly offering it along with its smartwatch unit.
So once the Korean tech giant's wearable is released, so will the Samsung Pay be launched.
Apple Pay is a mobile payment service that allows specific Apple devices likethe iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and Apple Watch complete transactions online and even at retail by digitizing credit or debit magnetic stripe transactions at terminals. It utilizes the Touch ID and Passbook for security. It is said to be comprehensive with some saying that it covers 90% of credit card purchase volume in the US.
Samsung has reportedly secured partnerships with American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and US Bank. Both Visa and Mastercard are included as well. It may be trying to partner up with more banks and merchants, which could be the cause of it backing out of its original plan to enable Samsung Pay with the Samsung Galaxy S6 as it was introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelon earlier.
Samsung Pay supports near-field communications technology and will use the similar hardware-based security mechanisms to protect the credit card holder's info. In the S6's case, it is provided by the fingerprint scanner.
Nonetheless, Samsung Pay still has the potential to give Apple Pay a run for its money so it is important that everything is seamless with this service once it is ready.
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