The mobile payment service will be launched this summer

Mar 2, 2015 01:48 GMT  ·  By

During its Unpacked 2015 event for the launch of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung announced that these smartphones would be compatible with its new mobile payment service.

Samsung Pay will be officially launched this summer and will allow users to make secure mobile payments at “nearly all merchant locations.”

Since mobile wallets have had lower acceptance at merchants all over the world, Samsung believes there's a market for this category of services. Samsung Pay is meant to provide customers with the option to use their mobile phones to pay at existing POS (point-of-sale) terminals.

The South Korean company also explains how it is going to achieve better acceptance for its mobile payment service at merchants. Samsung confirmed it would make use of both NFC (Near Field Communication) and a new proprietary technology called Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST).

In order to make Samsung Pay more popular at merchants, Samsung has partnered with MasterCard and Visa. Moreover, the company claims it is now in talks with other major players in the mobile payment service, including American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and US Bank.

Samsung claims that its mobile payment service has the potential of being accepted at approximately 30 million merchant locations worldwide.

Add a new card and tap the phone to a POS

But how will the service work for users? Well, you will first need to add a new card onto your smartphone following a few simple steps.

Once added, the user simply needs to swipe up from the bezel to open the Samsung Pay application. Then simply choose the desired payment card and authenticate it with the fingerprint sensor.

Then, when you want to pay for something with you card, simply tap the smartphone to the POS (point-of-sale) terminal.

Samsung Pay security is enhanced by the company's Samsung KNOX mobile security platform and ARM TrustZone, which protect transaction information from data attacks.

“Samsung Pay will reinvent how people pay for goods and services and transform how they use their smartphones. The secure and simple payment process, coupled with our robust partner network, makes Samsung Pay a truly game-changing service that will bring value to consumers and our partners in the ecosystem,” said JK Shin, CEO and head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.