Samsung Pay Joins Mobile Payment Arena

NEW YORK — A new competitor is ready to take on Apple Pay, Google Pay, Merchant Customer Exchange’s CurrentC, PayPal, Square and others in the mobile payment space. Samsung Pay will debut in the United States on Sept. 28, Injong Rhee, head of the South Korean company’s mobile payment division, told attendees at its Galaxy Unpacked event in New York City Thursday.

"We set out to develop a solution that's simple, safe and open to all businesses large and small, not to mention fun to use, Rhee stated.

According to CNET.com, Samsung Pay will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to talk with compatible registers. But it also uses a LoopPay technology called magnetic secure transmission that works by holding the phone near a traditional card swipe reader.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. believes this is an advantage compared to mobile payment platforms like Apple Pay, which also employs NFC but faces a problem of few retail registers that have the technology.

"Instantly on day one, because of [magnetic secure transmission] technology, Samsung Pay will be accepted almost anywhere consumers can pay today," Visa Inc.’s executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Jim McCarthy, said in a statement. "We see this as a huge step forward for consumer choice and payment security."

Samsung Pay will come preloaded on the company’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note devices. A software upgrade will be available to Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge devices.

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