More digital wallets to come…
Samsung, Ingenico and app developer Smartlink launched the Contactless Companion Platform (CCP) last week. The platform is looking to enable financial inclusion by helping to bring digital cash to everyone, including those without payment cards and bank accounts. The system lets users make digital cash payments via any enabled contactless device of their choice, such as a dedicated smart card, wristband, key fob, or mechanical watch or smart ring.
Users can top up their digital cash in app as well as on a PC and at POS terminals, while Samsung says the platform can also seamlessly combine payments with loyalty points, vouchers, travel cards and ticketing. Swiss watchmakers Winwatch and Montfort have each developed mechanical wristwatches with an embedded CCP element for payments. Meanwhile, other wearable and accessory manufacturers are set to follow suit and a Swiss fintech company will soon roll out dedicated CCP-enabled smartcards in several Eastern European countries. You can read more about the CCP announcement here.
I covered this news and then thinking that there were no more mobile wallets out there, was surprised to hear about LG Pay.
LG Electronics Inc. has been lagging behind its peers in offering a mobile payment app but will finally introduce its own mobile payment service called LG Pay (again, lack of originality for the names of the wallets) that is similar to the one adopted by its biggest local rival Samsung Electronics Co.’s Samsung Pay.
The company has announced that its latest flagship smartphone G6 will start to offer the LG Pay in Korea in June. The new mobile wallet service will be run based on wireless magnetic communication (WMC) technology developed by Dynamics Inc., a U.S. payment solution company, allowing its users to upload a multiple number of credit cards on their smartphone without carrying actual cards.
The WMC technology that generates a magnetic signal from a mobile device will allow its users to pay for purchases by simply tapping their phones to a general credit card terminal. This is different from NFC, as adopted by Apple Pay that requires a separate terminal for payment transaction but is similar to Samsung Pay’s magnetic security transmission (MST) technology, which Samsung Electronics gained through its acquisition of American mobile payment firm LoopPay. LG Electronics said there should be no patent dispute with Samsung Electronics as the WMC is a proprietary mobile payment technology developed by Dynamics in 2007.
Last week, LG Electronics finalised their partnership agreement with Dynamics to use the WMC technology in LG smartphones with a plan to make the LG Pay services available in the latest flagship G6 starting June through a software upgrade program. The company also plans to allow LG Pay users to pay for online purchases and add a loyalty card feature later. Currently, seven local credit cards companies agreed to provide digital wallet services through LG Pay and one is in talks, said LG Electronics.
One would be forgiven for thinking that mobile wallets had reached their end in 2016. Looking at both LG and Samsung, I’m not so sure.
Until next week.
Steve Atkins
Contactless Intelligence
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