While largely seen as a major Android phone carrier, Samsung wants to be thought of more like Apple than like other phones, in that it wants to have its own built-in ecosystem that its consumers can come to use in their everyday lives. One way of doing this is to create its own mobile payment system similar to Apple Pay, which will be put on the new Galaxy S6 according to SlashGear’s JC Torres.
The new payment system will be built into the phone, and be accessed using a stationary fingerprint sensor rather than a swipe-based one on older models, which is believed to be more secure. The payment system itself though will differ from Apple Pay in that it will have a non-NFC payment system developed by Massachusetts startup LoopPay. LoopPay already has a contactless card reader that can be attached to most smartphones with a swipe reader that enables consumers to swipe their cards into their phone for safe storage. The cards are then activated, according to a company video, by holding either the phone or the detachable reader over the card swipe part of existing POS terminals. For the S6 though, the card swipe feature will likely not be available, and will be possibly secured further by a fingerprint sensor or other biometric device, as reported by Torres.
The addition of a non-NFC reader though, because LoopPay uses the same transmittance technology existing POS readers have, may give Samsung an advantage over Apple. According to LoopPay, its card reader is already accepted at over 10 million retailers — 40 times the number that accept Apple Pay. It also is more accommodating to retailers because to accept Apple Pay, retailers will have to absorb the overhead costs involved with upgrading POS terminals for NFC availability.
Samsung is already the largest Android seller on the market, but last quarter, it lost the title of No. 1 smartphone shipper to Apple thanks to the massive popularity of the iPhone 6. A mobile payment-friendly Galaxy S6, should it meet expectations at the upcoming MWC conference, could help Samsung reverse its recent slide.