It seems one of the very clear and obvious battles now emerging among manufacturers is for your wallet. More specifically, for the right to be the mobile payment solution provider that you pay for goods and services with when using your smartphone. If you are of the iOS persuasion, then Apple Pay is for you. If you are of the Android way of doing things, then you do have a much greater degree of choice with Android Pay and Samsung Pay both now available. Although, the latter is only available for owners of select Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Of course, then there is LG’s aptly named LG Pay and now the the latest Pay has arrived in the form of Mi Pay. The name alone is enough to highlight that Mi Pay is being brought to market by Xiaomi and in spite of coverage on Xiaomi’s Pay alternative coming through for months now, the details are still a little light. However, Xiaomi is reported to have now unveiled Mi Pay at an event in China last night and so it is now officially announced.
In terms of the details, Mi Pay seems to be one which works much in the same way as the rest of the ‘Pays’ and makes use of NFC to establish a connection and make payment. Like Samsung’s service, it seems that Mi Pay will only be available on Xiaomi devices and of course, can only be available on those which come with support for NFC. Likewise, Mi Pay is only launching in China at the moment with no details on any further international expansion plans confirmed. Which is probably to be expected with Xiaomi products yet to reach the shores of many international markets. In terms of compatibility, the reports detail that Xiaomi has already reached agreements with various Chinese banking institutes including the likes of Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, Industrial Bank, Minsheng Bank and Ping An Bank. Although as to be expected, this list will grow further in time. At the moment, no further details were provided on when the service will actually be turned on in China for Xiaomi device owners, or which already-existing device owners will be able to make use of the service. Although, it is likely much of the compatibility of current Xiaomi devices will be determined by whether they come equipped with NFC or not.