Lately we’ve seen plenty of moves out of Samsung Pay, as banks and stores took an interest in this new technology.
One thing that’s been a little less frequently seen is hardware development, and a new set of partnerships is poised to change that.
The new partnerships feature big names—Verifone and Ingenico—and together are set to give Samsung Pay a little extra edge with better terminals.
A poor payment reader can mean a bad experience overall, and leave users turning to a completely different payment method altogether.
Giving users a better time when it comes to the tap-to-pay experience that Samsung Pay focuses on will likely better let users get more used to the notion, and users familiar with a service will often keep using it if only out of sheer inertia.
First, however, the experience has to be both of good quality and reliably so.
There’s a downside to this development, however, in that Samsung may well be engaging in rising the tide that will lift all mobile payment boats.
Better readers don’t just help Samsung Pay; better readers help improve the experience for Apple Pay and Android Pay as well.
Many stores don’t offer mobile payments services because they’re not equipped to do so, and if Samsung Pay helps develop a better, less expensive reader, then there’s more reason to bring in mobile payments systems. Including systems that may not be Samsung Pay.
Yet at the same time, Samsung may also gain new clients that weren’t there previously, so a risk-reward analysis suggests that Samsung is likely to come out ahead, even if it ends up conceding a few businesses to other payment platforms.
Still, there’s no doubt that, without the better readers, people will stay away from all mobile payment systems.
Samsung’s taking a slight risk, but the reward potential is substantial. This could mean that Samsung’s about to give a little extra advantage to its competitors, but there’s also plenty of potential that Samsung may be about to give itself some gains as well.