Samsung Pay is expanding with plans to integrate rewards cards and gift cards into the mPayment platform in a software update planned for November or soon thereafter.
It’s a bid to stay competitive as Apple Pay, its entrenched rival in the US market, does with same, with its announcement today of its first rewards card integration in collaboration with American drug store chain Walgreens. More such integrations can be expected soon, and it’s fair to assume that Android Pay will also follow suit at some point.
But Samsung Pay is expanding in other ways, too. That same software update will also see the introduction of in-app purchases, and in a recent interview with ZDNet Samsung Pay EVP Injong Rhee asserted that the mPayment platform would soon be expanded to more smartphones beyond the Note 5 and the latest Galaxy S6 devices that support it now. Moreover, these new devices will be further down the price spectrum, expanding the mPayment service to many more users.
Rhee was also keen to emphasize security, noting that Samsung Pay uses tokenization while its supporting devices feature Knox mobile security. That positioning may part of a growing trend as mobile organizations seek to appeal to increasingly security-minded consumers, with Apple’s CEO having recently emphasized his own company’s commitment to end-to-end encryption and other privacy and security protections. Like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay also employs biometric fingerprint authentication for payment authorization.
Source: ZDNet
Follow Us