It wasn’t long ago when Samsung announced the arrival of their mobile payment system in the U.S., although it has landed in South Korea a month earlier, on August 20th. Since its launch at Samsung’s home country, the system has been a huge success, processing over 30 million USD in the first month. We don’t have the numbers for the U.S. operations yet, but given the fact that it can be accepted almost anywhere, Samsung has a head start against Apple’s Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay. Media websites have praised the payment system by the Korean giant, mostly because of its wider compatibility with existing payment terminals.
As noted by Business Korea website, technology media outlets have published articles talking about the subject and highlighting the advantages of Samsung Pay over the competition, mainly Apple Pay. Fortune, for example, released a piece on September 30th entitled “Here’s why Samsung Pay is way better than Apple Pay and Android Pay” bringing important data. Since it works with both NFC and magnetic terminal, it is capable of being used at around 95% of existing point of sales, with the exception for ATMs, gas stations and any other place you need to insert your card instead of swiping. Another important aspect praised by websites is how easy it is to use – not that other systems aren’t also easy. Of course nothing is perfect and on The Verge’s review, it didn’t work with older magnetic payment terminals, and Gizmodo also pointed the fact that it cannot replace your wallet just yet.
Given the fact that the platform is only 2 months old and has just arrived in the U.S., it is a good start. However, although things are looking good for Samsung’s system, it still has a long way to go. Since it can be accepted anywhere, the limitation lays behind the fact that it can only be used with Samsung’s flagship phones from this year – Galaxy S6/S6 edge, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+, which is a very limiting factor. The company stated that they are planning to bring it to older devices and midr-ange phones, but there isn’t any information yet. If you are curious about what Samsung Pay is or what you need in order to use it, check out our FAQ regarding the topic.