UPDATE: Samsung adds Galaxy A7 to its premium phones getting the Samsung Pay support in India. The company rolled out the app via a firmware update version A710FXXU2BPJ7. The update which accounts for 1MB space is focused on bug fixes and improvements apart from the mobile payment platform. A similar update was released by Samsung for Galaxy Note 5. The company is expected to launch Samsung’s mobile wallet by the mid-2017.
PREVIOUSLY: Samsung is progressively marching towards the roll out of its mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay in India. While earlier reports had pegged the expected launch of Samsung’s mobile wallet by the mid-2017, Samsung has provided even more hints of a roll-out, through its recent partnership with American Express in India.
The reports related to the deal were first published by Mashable India which stated, that Samsung is exploring similar opportunities with giants such as Visa and MasterCard as well. The company began testing the service in India in December itself, due to a looming threat from prevalent payment platforms such as Apple Pay and Android Pay.
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#dd3333″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]Samsung’s mobile wallet is expected to launch in India by mid-2017[/mks_pullquote]Samsung Pay is a digital payment platform which allows you to use your credit, debit, gift, and reward cards to complete payments. It turns your mobile into your wallet and provides security services similar to banks. One of the most significant features of Samsung Pay is support for Magnetic Secure Transmissions (MST). The support will ensure safe transactions by transmitting a magnetic signal from the user to a payment terminal’s card reader.Besides of being equipped with efficient features, Samsung Pay defines it user base limited to premium Samsung smartphones users only. Under the premium category, Samsung accounts for nearly 2.5 million users with phones including Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, and Galaxy Note5.
Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint commented on Samsung’s market share and said,
This is a pretty good install base and mature users for Samsung Pay to gain initial traction.
Apart from development on the payments platform, the company further released updates for Galaxy Note 5 recently. The update offered Samsung Pay support along with the January Android security patch. The update which came with a download size of around 320 MB also included bug fixes and stability improvements. The presence of the app on the update further hinted Samsung’s plan to launch the e-wallet in India soon.
With the mass popularity of Samsung devices across the nation and an upscale in digital payments post demonetization, Samsung Pay would be a great move for the Korean giant.
