Leading smartphone-maker Samsung on Wednesday officially launched the much awaited cash-less payment platform Samsung Pay in India.
The new Samsung Pay works on the company's patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as with Near Field Communication (NFC). MST is capable of replicating a card swipe by wirelessly transmitting magnetic waves from the supported Samsung device to a standard card reader. Through MST, Samsung pay will work seamlessly on a majority of Point of Sale terminals in India, Samsung claims.
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Samsung's card network and issuer partners include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India is a forthcoming issuer and its credit cards will be live on Samsung Pay shortly.
Samsung Pay works with three levels of security—fingerprint authentication, card tokenization and Samsung's defense-grade mobile security platform Samsung KNOX.
It has to be noted that Samsung Pay will soon be made to support Unified Payment Interface (UPI), a payment system launched by the National Payments Corporation of India. The Samsung Pay UPI solution is powered by Axis Bank and facilitates peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer of funds between bank accounts on a mobile platform instantly.
As of now, Samsung Pay is compatible with the Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017). The company also confirmed that Tizen OS-powered Samsung Gear S3 will also get a software to update to support Samsung Pay by this month end.
To launch Samsung Pay, a user needs to swipe up on an eligible Samsung Galaxy smartphone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint or PIN and bring the phone near the Point of Sale terminal.
Will Samsung Pay be introduced to more affordable Galaxy J series?
Yes, based on the demand, Samsung India will be introducing new Galaxy J series with Samsung Pay support later in the year. Since the Galaxy J series make the bulk of Samsung smartphones sold in the country, there are plans to equip Samsung Pay-required hardware in the mid-tier phones, Shin Woo Jin, Regional Product Marketing Team, Mobile Communication Business, Samsung, said to International Business Times, India Edition.
Watch this space for latest news on Samsung products.
