We first heard that Samsung might be working on an Apple Pay competitor late last year and now it looks like we might be about to see it, as new information has come flooding in about Samsung's contactless payment service.
The system, which is likely to debut on the Samsung Galaxy S6, is apparently called Samsung Pay, which we kind of hope is true for the sheer ridiculousness of having a name that similar to its main competitor.
The name was revealed by SamMobile, which also reports that Samsung has partnered with Visa, which could potentially mean that any card issued by Visa will support Samsung Pay.
The ace up Samsung's sleeve
But there's more, because some Samsung Pay details have also been revealed to BGR, which heard from a "trusted source" that it works with 90% of existing magnetic stripe and NFC payment terminals.
That could mean that it will quickly and easily become widely available and not face some of the hurdles that Apple Pay does.
In fact that lines up with the original rumours we heard last year, which stated that Samsung was in talks with a payments startup called LoopPay to implement the system.
Combined with rumours of a new touch-based fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S6, which could presumably be used to authorise payments, it's easy to see that Samsung Pay could be a strong rival to the similar Apple Pay.
Apple has the head start, but if the rumours above are true it sounds like Samsung Pay might have some built in advantages. The name could use a rethink though.
- The Galaxy S6 might not have a Snapdragon 810 chip.
