Apple’s contactless payment service, Apple Pay, recently benefited from a fresh round of publicity prompted by its launch in the UK. Still, Samsung is clearly determined not to be outdone, having today announced its commencement of a trial of a rival service, Samsung Pay, in South Korea.
Samsung formally unveiled Samsung Pay at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March, but has been busy tweaking the service behind the scenes ahead of a full launch. That launch could take place as soon as next month; in the meantime, however, the only members of the public who can use it are select Samsung customers, including Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge users.
Like its Apple competitor, Samsung Pay will make use of near field communication, otherwise known as NFC, card readers to ensure that users of compatible Samsung devices will not need cards for payment at a variety of merchants.
Unlike Apple Pay, however, it will also use technologies of magnetic secure transmission, or MST. This alone could significantly ease widespread adoption of Samsung Pay support among merchants, as they will not need to invest in expensive new equipment in the process.
The South Korean tech company is currently working to bring Samsung Pay to its native market and the US this year, and intends to then expand it to Europe and China.
