Smartphone tech behemoth Samsung Electronics is stripping down its mobile payment platform Samsung Pay with Samsung Pay Mini. And that is all slated to launch in South Korea days from now.
ZDNet has reported that Samsung has announced on Thursday that it will be launching another mobile payments service for all Android smartphones in South Korea in the ongoing quarter. Dubbed as Samsung Pay Mini, the Samsung Pay's new version will allow Android smartphone users to make online transactions upon downloading its dedicated app. In addition, it will allow subscribers to make offline credit card and debit card payments via their smartphones or even their smart watch.
One significant difference of Samsung Pay Mini from its parent mobile payment platform Samsung Pay is that the payments can be made even if the user's smartphone is not Samsung-branded. The new mobile payment scheme will only work with Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) but is still enabled to be used at most establishments not only in South Korea but also globally.
Meanwhile, Samsung Pay is currently allowing its transactions to be made online through NFC. In the event that a retailer does not go with NFC, the user can still make use of an offline credit or debit payment with the use of MST.
Samsung Pay Mini is currently being marketed only for its South Korean subscribers. However, Samsung has noted that it might be looking into launching the payment platform to other countries. The firm hasn't decided yet as to which countries would follow next to its mainland country.
Samsung Pay Mini is scheduled to launch via a demo version on Feb. 26. It will be available through the Google Play Store in South Korea. Users should have their smartphones running an Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher to avail of the service, as per Phone Arena.
