Samsung Pay, a new competitor in the NFC-based payment game will now be giving Apple Pay and Android Pay a run for their money, literally.
The service is now live in the U.S. following its launch in South Korea where it immediately experienced over $30 million in transaction volume in the first month alone.
Samsung Pay, which is based on the technology based on LoopPay, allows Samsung to enter the fold with a slight edge in the market considering it is not limited to NFC-based payments only.
This particular payments platform offers customers the ability to pay via their Samsung devices through NFC tech a la Apple and Google’s solution, or as an alternative, emulating a magnetic stripe card.
The stripe card was the main motivation behind Samsung’s $250 million dollar acquisition of LoopPay. LoopPay had previously developed a type of technology referred to as Magnetic Secure Transmission.
This announcement comes during the transitional period pertaining to the U.S. shifting to EMV-based credit and debit cards, which are considered to be safer and more secure than magnetic stipe cards. However, no one is expecting the magnetic strip method to disappear any time soon. Samsung is looking to enter to
The current drawback in regard to Samsung Pay is its limited capability. Right now, it is only enabled on select devices include the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge+, and Note5 devices. As opposed to Android, who has its payment service available on all NFC-enabled Android phones running on Android 4.4 or higher.
Nevertheless, the launch is exciting for Samsung customers who are nipping at the heal in attempt to gain access to mobile payments via their smartphones.