With MWC just four days away, the rumor mill has been churning like crazy. A new rumor has just come to light today, stating that Samsung and PayPal are teaming up to make paying with your smartphone much easier. This news comes shortly after SamMobile leaked that the Galaxy S 5 would be sporting a fingerprint scanner in its physical home button. The rumors don’t necessarily state much about what exactly they are doing to change the way we pay with our phones. One of the possible explanations is that Samsung could use the fingerprint scanner as a way to authenticate the payment, rather than using a PIN.
It also stands to mention that Samsung still has their Samsung Wallet floating around. It is possible that we might end up seeing PayPal and Samsung working together to make Samsung Wallet more useful in terms of mobile payment. Currently, the Samsung Wallet app functions more as a way to store all of your loyalty cards and tickets. With Samsung Wallet, you can’t make any payments at the register. It would make sense for Samsung to try to utilize their existing Samsung Wallet name as much as possible and roll that into some sort of payment system.
Regardless of the way that Samsung is implementing mobile payments, they still need to battle the existing mobile payment options that are present today. With options like Google Wallet and ISIS, it can be difficult to compete. ISIS is currently one of the most supported mobile payment options by mobile carriers. Another thing that Samsung needs to overcome if they want their mobile payment option to work is the rules and regulations for making mobile payments via a smartphone. Hopefully with the help of PayPal, they can figure out a way to make paying with a smartphone something that is available in any store.
Keep in mind that this is just a rumor, and that there isn’t a whole lot of information on this possible team up. Of course, with MWC just mere days away, we could be hearing more information about this partnership very soon.