Samsung Pay has been one of the fast adopted mobile payment systems so far, being the second last to be released in a group that includes the likes of Android Pay and Apple Pay.
Apple Pay came to life in 2014 and it was followed by Samsung Pay in August 2015, although it made its first appearance in the U.S. a month later. As for Android Pay, it was first unveiled in September 2015, making it the third major mobile payment system across the globe.
While Apple Pay is meant for use only on iOS devices, Android Pay has the advantage of being compatible with a huge range of Android devices as long as they have an NFC chip. As for Samsung Pay, it is no different from Apple Pay as it only works with select Samsung Galaxy devices, including the latest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
However, this is about to change as the company has filed a trademark for a name of a software application known as Samsung Pay Mini. According to the trademark, which was filed on June 30, 2016, with respect to the EU Intellectual Property Office, it is meant to protect the word “Samsung Pay Mini.”
The trademark further lists Samsung Pay Mini as a mobile payment software application for smartphones as well as mobile and internet payment services. With such a precise description, it all but confirms the fact that non-Android devices, probably iPhones included, will soon be able to make payments via the Samsung Pay Mini app.
With this move, Samsung Pay will gain a new functionality that is not available on any of its competitors, apart from Google’s Android Pay which can also be used with non-Nexus devices. Given that the service has been seeing rapid adoption in the markets it has already entered, including the U.S. and China, this diverse availability will only but better its chances of becoming the go-to mobile payment service not just for Android users, but also for iPhone users.
Samsung Pay has another advantage of over Apple Pay and Android Pay – it is the only service that takes advantage of MST technology. This means that it can be used to make payments in places where current credit or debit cards are being used.
Even though the trademark confirms that the company is indeed working on releasing a Samsung Pay Mini app for non-Galaxy devices, the exact date of when this will happen is still a mystery. Who knows, this may happen the same day that Samsung will reportedly be announcing the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 7, which should happen at an Unpacked event to be held on August 2 in New York.