Samsung's Apple Pay competitor in the works

Phone

Apple Pay could take a long time to get to developing countries where its latest crop of smartphones, the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, aren't very popular. And that's exactly what Samsung would want to exploit with a possible rival payment system. According to reports, an Apple Pay competitor from Samsung is already in the works, with a launch allegedly due for 2015. As is with Apple Pay, this technology would allow users of Samsung smartphones to use their smartphone to make payments — simply by waving it in front of appropriate hardware. Samsung has already discussed the idea with a payments startup, LoopPay, according to Re/code.

The report also cites a source that points at a prototype that's already out for testing. Samsung has a strong presence in not only developed markets, but also in the developing ones; if the deal does go through, it could mean that a lot of the users in these developing markets would make use of the wireless (and presumably contact-less) payments system instead of traditional credit/debit cards.

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