If you want to use your mobile device for making payments you’re now really spoilt for choice. There’s Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay aside from other services like CurrentC, etc. that are trying to make it in this market. All of these services essentially offer the same thing and that’s the ease of paying through a mobile device. Samsung Pay is fairly new to this game but already it’s made quite a mark in the company’s home base of South Korea. With a U.S. launch taking place later this month Samsung has hinted at the possibility that at some point its payment service might be expanded to less expensive devices.
Those who want to use Samsung Pay right now need a compatible device which include Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+.
In case you’re not aware all of these are flagship devices from Samsung had happen to cost a pretty penny, for now folks with mid-range Samsung smartphones are out of luck.
Shin Jong-kyun, who heads Samsung’s mobile division, was recently asked about the company’s expansion plans for Samsung Pay. He only said that “it will gradually expand” without really explaining which devices are most likely to get Samsung Pay and when they’ll finally get it.
Given that it relies on NFC and magnetic secure transmission to process payments several of Samsung’s mid-range handsets might need to be updated before they can be made compatible with the company’s payments service. It’s not at all impossible, but it might take a while before this happens.