Samsung Electronics is to pre-install its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, in almost all Samsung smartphones.
In a statement to Business Korea, an official from Samsung Electronics said: “We have decided to pre-install Samsung Pay in Samsung Electronics’ smartphones to be released from next year.”
The app will be offered on all devices except for some low-end models.
To do this, Samsung will add fingerprint scanners to all of its upcoming smartphones.
Koh Dong-Jin, president of Samsung’s mobile division, said earlier this year that the company was working on bringing fingerprint readers to budget phones such as the Galaxy J series, which is targeted at emerging markets.
Currently, Samsung Pay is available in seven countries: the United States, Spain, Brazil, Singapore, Australia and China as well as South Korea. It will be launched in Russia, Thailand and Malaysia by the end of 2016. The mobile payment service has partnered with more than 500 major banks around the world and leading credit card firms such as MasterCard, Visa and American Express.
According to Greenbot, Samsung Pay is the only mobile payment service to offer Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) in addition to the standard NFC. This allows it to be used on almost all credit card payment terminals, not just those updated with newer technology.
Samsung Electronics is also preparing to release Samsung Pay Mini, an app that extends its mobile payment service to other other Android phones for online shopping, Business Korea reported.
