Samsung Pay plans expansion in 2016
29 Dec 2015
In a bid to expand its mobile payment service in the US next year, Samsung Electronics Co will allow users to shop online and with more smartphones that support the electronic wallet.
Lower-priced Samsung phones are likely to start offering the mobile wallet ''within the next year,'' Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay, said in an interview, Reuters reported. The service launched in South Korea with a few high-end Samsung phones, including the Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6, and S6 Edge Plus.
Wider ''handset availability of Samsung Pay as well as online payment support is coming soon,'' he said late last week.
Samsung Pay had already stolen a march over its major rivals Apple and Android, with the launch of its US service on 28 September with technology used widely at most stores. Users need to install new equipment to use Apple Pay and Alphabet Inc's Android Pay.
By accepting payments online, Samsung Pay would take on rival PayPal Holdings Inc, as also new-comers including Visa Inc's Visa Checkout.
Mobile wallets have failed to gain traction in the US, which had also lagged Europe and Asia in adopting payment technologies such as credit cards embedded with microchips.
South Korea's ET News reported Samsung was planning to change the screen size of both its standard and phablet Galaxy S7 models.
The standard Galaxy S7 will feature a larger 5.2-inch display (the first change in three generations) and was under development by the codename 'HERO1'. Also an enlarged 5.5-inch Galaxy S7 (presumably the leaked 'Galaxy S7 Plus') would arrive under the 'HERO2' codename for the first time.
According to ET News, the Galaxy S7 Edge variants (Edge and Edge+) would come with the same screen dimensions as the standard S7, which meant only 0.4-inch difference between the four models compared to the 0.6-inches this year with the 5.1-inch Galaxy S6 Edge and 5.7-inch Galaxy S6 Edge+.
However, the news goes against rumours that the Galaxy S7 Plus would get bigger with leaked dimensions indicating a massive 6-inch model.