Comment (8)Samsung is getting in on the mobile payments game with a new service coming this summer.
The South Korean company had been widely expected to make the move into mobile payments. It will take on Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL),Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Softcard and many, many others.
Like Apple and Google, the Samsung service can use near field communications (NFC) to allow phones to tap a reader for payments. NFC chips are in the last few generations of Samsung smartphones.
Samsung, however, will also implement another payment method that should allow its latest devices -- like the Samsung S6 -- to make payments at many more point-of-sale terminals than before. In February, Samsung bought Boston-based contactless payment specialist LoopPay for technology that could allow its phones to make payments on up to 90% of the POS terminals in commercial use today. (See Samsung Buys LoopPay to Take on Apple Pay.)
The technology allows users to tap their phone on the reader where they would usually swipe their credit card. This is achieved using MST technology that tricks the reader into thinking it is getting a standard credit swipe by very quickly generating changing magnetic fields from the phone which can be read by a standard magnetic credit card reader.
Allowing Samsung devices to make mobile payments on terminals without NFC capabilities may give it some edge in the crowded mobile payments field. The vendor has had mixed fortunes with phone sales recently. (See Samsung Expects S6 to Buoy Q2 Profit.)
Separately, the company launched the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Note 5 phablet.
— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading
