The South Korean company Samsung announced that the launch of its mobile in United Kingdom payment service is finally delayed until next year, what would certainly be a relief for the offerings of big rivals, Apple and Google, who can still count on one competitor for a few months.
Samsung launched Samsung Pay mobile payment platform for the first time in the United States and South Korea last year, and while he had promised that the service would reach Britain in 2016, this has not been possible.
Negotiations with the banks delayed the debut of Samsung Pay in Britain
The delay in the arrival of Samsung Pay in the British Isles seems to be motivated by the difficult negotiations with the banks, “hard nut to crack” in this and similar cases. A company spokesman has confirmed that the service would be launched in 2017.
“After the successful Samsung Pay launches around the world, we are planning to launch the service in the United Kingdom in 2017.”
Samsung Pay allows owners of smartphones and smartwatches of the South Korea company Transact contactless commercially available similar to how it is done through Apple Pay and Android Pay. However, in the case of the Samsung smartphones, since these work with the Android operating system, users already can perform such operations through Android Pay. Even so, Samsung wants to promote its own service as thus it would significantly reduce its dependence on Android (Google).
On the other hand, Samsung has also been supporting Tizen, an alternative operating system that take more than an some few markets, would be the total rupture with Android.
Android Pay is also incompatible with the Samsung smartwatches, giving some advantage to competitor Apple Pay.
Could not fulfill the promise
During the Consumer Electronics Show, held last January, and also coinciding with the launch of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung said that Samsung Pay would come to the United Kingdom this year, along with the other nine countries that have received it along 2016 after its premiere in the United States and Korea of the South in 2015.
Apple launched its service of mobile payments in the United Kingdom in July of last year, while Google did the same with Android Pay in May.
Another bad news after the crisis of Note 7
No doubt it is not good news for the South Korean company. The United Kingdom is a powerful market, one of the most important of the old continent, and any delay could be “giving away” potential users to the competition. In addition, we cannot forget the closeness of this news with the crisis of the Galaxy Note 7 has meant if only a considerable decline in economic for the company, but also a crisis of reputation and credibility that it needs to recover as soon as possible.
The delay in the arrival of Samsung Pay in the United Kingdom after having promised repeatedly, not encouraged precisely to restore lost confidence by users. However, we must not forget that this decision depends not only on the company, if not also the banks, and that both parties should reach an agreement.
The month of February, taking advantage of the celebration of the Mobile World Congress 2017 which is held every year in Barcelona (Spain), Samsung will present its new flagship, the Galaxy S8, a device he expected new features, including a choice of up to 256 GB, between 6 and 8 GB of RAM and up to a reader of iris which would serve , inter alia, to unlock the terminal. The impact of this device, accompanied by the launch of Samsung Pay in Britain and, perhaps, other countries, could help significantly to the recovery of the company.
