Samsung is looking to expand the currently limited availability of their mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, to include high-end phones from other manufacturers according to a new rumour.
The report from Gadgets360 says that a ‘source familiar with the developments’ has advised them that Samsung is looking to expand the service to higher end non-Samsung phones. The expansion would include the use of Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), the same technology that allows Samsung Pay to be used on mag-stripe only EFTPOS terminals instead of just NFC based terminals like NFC based Tap & Pay solutions from Android Pay and Apple Pay.
Samsung has recently broadened availability of Samsung Pay to more mid-range devices in the Galaxy range in a bid to extend availability of Samsung Pay. These lower end handsets though don’t include the requisite specialised ‘chip’ that MST requires to work. According to the same source, Samsung is looking at two solutions, either getting other smartphone vendors to include the chip, or offer a ‘puck’ like accessory to stick on the back of the phone.
At present, in Australia Samsung has partnered with around 40 financial institutions, most recently partnering with ANZ who will now offer Samsung Pay to their customers. In Australia, you can still only use Samsung Pay with higher end Note, A-series and Galaxy S series handsets as well as their Gear S2 and S3 smartwatches. An expansion to other manufacturers would certainly bring about a positive increase in their user base.
It comes down to user experience and Samsung has been improving their user experience gradually over the last couple of years. Using Samsung Pay is a fairly pain-free option, so it may appeal to some users, though they will still have to work to bring other banks or credit unions on board just as competitors Apple, and Google have been with their offerings.
Samsung of course hasn’t commented, but it will be interesting to see what happens on this front.
