Samsung could be set to shake up their strategy around mobile payment app Samsung Pay, potentially opening up the service to users of non-Samsung devices.
According to a new report by Gadgets360, “the top Android smartphone seller has held internal talks within the company and with OEMs about bringing Samsung Pay to high-end smartphones of other companies”.
If true, it would mark a major expansion for the digital wallet service. Thus far, Samsung Pay is available in 19 countries but only to users of select Samsung devices released from 2015 onwards. Overcoming this limitation could prove key in Samsung efforts to overtake Apple in the digital payments space.
In addition, Gadgets360 say that “Samsung also plans to bring support for full-fledged Pay on its mid-range smartphones”
“The current timeline for either of these developments to hit the market is mid-2018,” the reports indicated.
According to marketing research firm Juniper, Samsung Pay had about 34 million customers as of earlier this year. This puts them behind Apple Pay, which boasts over 80 million customers, but ahead of Google’s Android Pay, which was estimated to have 24 million customers.
The number of banks offering support for Samsung Pay within Australia is quite sizeable, including Australian Unity, Bank Australia, Bank of Sydney, Beyond Bank Australia, Big Sky Building Society, Catalyst Money, Central Coast Credit Union, Central Murray Credit Union, Community First Credit Union, Credit Union SA, CUA, Customs Bank, Defence Bank, Firefighters Mutual Bank, First Option Credit Union, Holiday Coast Credit Union, Horizon Credit Union, Illawarra Credit Union, Intech Bank, MyState, Nexus Mutual, Northern Beaches Credit Union, P&N Bank, People’s Choice Credit Union, Police Bank, QT Mutual Bank, Queenslanders Credit Union, Reliance Bank, SCU, Select ENCOMPASS Credit Union, South West Slopes Credit Union, Teachers Mutual Bank, The Mac, The Rock, UniBank, Unity Bank, WAW Credit Union Co-Operative and Woolworths Employees’ Credit Union Limited, Westpac, Citibank and American Express.
