Samsung Pay in Final Phase of Testing, to Launch in September

Even as Apple Pay is expanding into UK, Samsung Pay is getting ready to challenge it. As per reports, Samsung is planning to launch this feature in the US and Korea September expanding later to Europe and China. Currently, Samsung Pay is in the testing phase as the company wants to remove all the bugs and errors before the launch itself to offer the user a seamless experience.

A report by the South Korean website BusinessKorea says that before rolling out Samsung Pay, the South Korean electronics giant is running comprehensive tests on its technology because the process of transmitting information to card readers through magnetic field at the checkout counters was not working out as smoothly as expected. Sources claim that the company was busy carrying out various tests with 8 card companies in Korea to straighten out all the kinks before launch.

Samsung has bought the mobile payment startup LoopPay and its mobile payment system is based on LoopPay’s Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology. In this system, the user first replicates the card’s magnetic information on the mobile screen and then confirms his own identity through fingerprint scanning. After this, the magnetic field in the smartphone activates the Credit Authorization Terminal (CAT) at the payment outlet.

Samsung Pay will also be using the Near Field Communication (NFC) system along with the MST system for contactless payments which will grant it access to many more checkout terminals compared to Apple Pay and Google Wallet who use only the NFC system. Samsung flagships Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be the first two devices to support Samsung Pay. But unfortunately there are still some problems with the magnetic field creation and the fingerprint identification especially with some old card readers at its partner outlets which Samsung is rigorously testing in conjunction with various card companies and hopes to get rid of them soon.

An official in the know says, “Samsung Electronics has decided to delay the release date of Samsung Pay from July to Sept. 1st in a bid to make it technically perfect. To minimize the error rates, the company is carrying out various tests.”

Let us see how Samsung Pay fares against other competitors when it hits the market.

Samsung Pay in Final Phase of Testing, to Launch in September