Competing with Apple and Google in the mobile payment market, Samsung is launching its recently introduced Samsung Pay in the US this week. Similar to offerings from Google through its Android Pay solution and Apple Pay, Samsung Pay allows users of select NFC enabled Samsung smartphones such as the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 to connect their credit or bank issued debit cards for payment directly from their phone.
Unlike Apple and Google, Samsung Pay is also introducing magnetic secure transmission technology that is acquired when the firm purchased LoopPay in 2014. With the technology, Samsung Pay provides payment support at merchant point of sale (POS) terminals that only use magnetic readers for processing card Payments . Although new laws are coming into effect on October 1st in the US that will speed up the process for merchants to update to POS terminals that include chip security and NFC payment abilities, the vast majority of merchants continue to use magnetic only card readers. As such, this feature provides an added element of usage ability for Samsung Pay compared to competing products.
As Samsung enters the US market, Samsung Pay arrives with strong traction from its initial launch in South Korea this past August. According to Samsung, $30 million in transactions were processed using Samsung Pay in its first month of availability in South Korea. The firm added that 36% of users activated the product, with 10% of them being classified as daily users.
