Samsung Pay Coming Soon to Rival Apple Pay

In a direct challenge to Google and Apple, Samsung are to launch the Samsung Pay mobile payments system. On Sunday, the world’s biggest maker of Android phones started a major campaign to challenge Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The electronics firm said it will not be long before they launch a rival phone-based payment system.

The new Samsung Pay system will first come into play this summer in the U.S. and later on in other markets. Samsung Pay will allow consumers to make tap-and-go payments with a smartphone in the same way as wireless contact payments works for debit and credit cards and Apple for example. The new initiative comes as Google is moving to strengthen their position in the mobile payments sector in order to compete with Apple Pay. Samsung Pay will be available on the new Galaxy S6; Samsung’s flagship smartphone, which was launched on Sunday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Interestingly, a device using Samsung Pay will be able to communicate with traditional magnetic card payment terminals as well as NFC terminals. This is due to the technology which was recently acquired by Samsung when it bought LoopPay. This means a phone will be able to make purchases at almost any electronic payment terminal.

In the same manner as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay will make use of one-time payment tokens instead of debit and credit card numbers. It is understood that Payment Tokens are much more secure because they do not reveal the customer’s card number and cannot be reused for any other transaction. Also, in a move that is identical to Apple Pay, users will be able to authorise the payments by holding their finger on the home button of the device.

We will have to wait and see just how this pans out, but as Google wallet has largely gone nowhere and Apple Pay is still rolling out, it may be some time before we see some stats on this technology.

[image via itpro]

SOURCE: PC World