It has only been a few months since Samsung Pay was launched, the payment service is performing nicely in the market and a major update is set to arrive in the near future which will not only add support for more financial institutions but also allow users to use gift cards for payment. For now Samsung Pay works only with a select few Samsung Galaxy devices but the company hasn't ruled out the possibility of opening up the payments service for devices made by other manufacturers.
This was revealed by Injong Rhee, executive vice president and head of enterprise business at Samsung's mobile division, during an interview in which he revealed several other interesting bits of information about the company's payment service. Rhee said that the idea behind Samsung Pay isn't to replace your wallet, rather the idea is to make your wallet smaller by replacing credit cards, adding that Samsung Pay and wallets “complement” each other. He also said that the Magnetic Secure Transmission technology which the backbone of Samsung Pay will be brought over to non-flagship devices in the future. As of last month the payment service has over one million subscribers and transaction volumes have hit $88 million.
Rhee was asked if at some point the company will open up Samsung Pay to non-Samsung devices, he said that they have considered this but are not currently working with anyone because for now all of Samsung's energies are focused on deployment. It's interesting to see that Samsung is leaving the door open to this possibility, bringing Samsung Pay to devices from other manufacturers would certainly go a long way in cementing its position as a leader in mobile payments.
