Samsung Pay could come to non-Samsung phones
Samsung's mobile payment feature one-ups Apple Pay and Android Pay in one major way.
Samsung Pay on a non-Samsung phone? It may seem blasphemous, but it could be a reality. Samsung is allegedly looking into bringing its mobile payment service to smartphones made by other companies, according to a report by Gadgets 360.
Samsung Pay takes Apple Pay and Android Pay a step further by working just as easily with any credit card terminal as it does with NFC payments. So far it's been tied to Samsung phones only. Samsung has even brought the service to budget options like the Galaxy J series in the form of Samsung Pay Mini -- a slightly downgraded version. Opening Samsung Pay to other phones could give Samsung a larger slice of the global mobile payment market, which is worth an estimated $780 billion (£595 billion/AU$980 billion) with millions of users worldwide.
For Samsung Pay to work on other phones the manufacturers would have to build them with magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology, but plenty of phones already have this compatibility.
Earlier this year it was estimated that 34 million people were using Samsung Pay, which is fewer than Apple Pay's 86 million users, but more than Android Pay's 24 million users. If Samsung recruits its competitors' phones to its service, we could see that number jump up significantly.
Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.
