Good news for some but how long before will we actually have it here in Ireland,As is Apple Pay is now operational in the UK but its capped at a nominal spend of £30 which will probably rise later on in the year,As is NFC has not took off here yet although the technology has been around some years and mobiles coming with NFC chips built in,what will likely kick off the buzz is when Apple Pay launches.Some companies already here have spoken to Apple about Apple pay but nothing has been set in concrete yet as when it actually launches.
Samsung Pay is scheduled to launch in the U.S. and South Korea later this summer and Samsung is currently working with banks and partners to bring the payment service to Europe.
MasterCard and Samsung Electronics announced they are extending their global partnership leveraging the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to deliver Samsung Pay in Europe. Samsung Pay is a mobile payment service that will enable consumers to use their Samsung flagship mobile devices to make every day in-store purchases at contactless and mag stripe terminals leveraging NFC and MST technologies. Samsung and MasterCard will together roll out Samsung Pay throughout Europe. Card issuers will be able to connect to the MDES platform and activate the Samsung Pay service upon launch. Cardholders from participating issuers can activate their credit, debit, reloadable prepaid and small business cards in the Samsung Pay service and use their mobile devices to make everyday purchases.
“With the continued global growth and reliance on connected mobile devices, we are delighted to expand our relationship with Samsung by extending the reach of Samsung Pay and MDES to cardholders in Europe. Europeans have been leading the way in the adoption of new ways to shop, buy and make a payment. Through our strong partnership with Samsung we look forward to continuing to drive innovation in mobile commerce by creating simple and secure digital payment experiences for consumers,” said Javier Perez, President of MasterCard Europe.
Samsung however are loosing sales mostly due to the high cost of new devices such as the S6 and S6 Edge and are now looking to lower prices which would not only be a wise move but would be the right move with the fierce competition out there from other manufacturers.