Samsung’s New Platform Steps Up Contactless Mobile Payments

For anyone who thought that wearable technology was largely on the way out, you may want to take a closer look at what Samsung’s doing. It’s called the Contactless Companion Platform, and this system will help bring mobile payments technology to a variety of wearable devices—along with other portable if non-wearable systems—all with a key thread in mind: contactless payments.

The Contactless Companion Platform will boast what Samsung calls a “digital cash top up” concept, allowing users to essentially treat these mobile devices like refillable cash cards. The top up can be done via app—right now set for both Android and iOS—along with from a PC or from a point-of-sale terminal.

Better yet, the platform can readily incorporate valuable elements of mobile payments, like coupons, loyalty program points gathering, assorted vouchers and more that allows mobile payments to be part of an entire customer experience enhancement.

Jorg Suchy, Samsung Semiconductor Europe’s associate director of business development, commented “The Contactless Companion Platform exemplifies the coming together of Samsung’s strong engagement with the security industry and its commitment to enhancing the quality of day-to-day life through innovative technology concepts.

Current contactless payment solutions aren’t considered a serious alternative to cash in many scenarios. CCP, however, takes the industry well beyond the many boundaries of what exists today.”

Anything that puts mobile payment systems into more hands, and gets these systems used more often, is likely something worth looking into, and there’s no doubt this would put such systems into more hands.

By reducing mobile payments technology to a thing you wave at a cash register, that makes it incredibly easy to use. By not tying it to a credit card or the like, but rather an app that runs through a potentially very secure server array, security increases to match.

The total risk is only the amount put on the device, not available for use like a debit or credit card. When convenience is augmented slightly and security is ratcheted up through the roof, that’s a recipe for bringing in new users and keeping the old base intact.

Samsung’s notion for ultra-accessible mobile payments systems may prove a real winner in the end, and it should prove exciting to see just how many take advantage of the notion.