Samsung's digital payments platform Samsung Pay is available on select Galaxy smartphones in 11 countries. In a bid to increase the reach of its services, Samsung has announced Samsung Pay Mini, an online payments solution that will be available on all Android phones. Samsung Pay Mini will be launching in South Korea later this quarter, and Samsung has said that the service will be available in other markets at a later date.
Samsung Pay Mini will be available to download from the Play Store, and will work on all Android phones as long as they have a screen resolution of 1280 x 720 or higher and are running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above. The app includes access to select Samsung Pay services, such as membership, lifestyle, and transportation. Samsung is also rolling out a shopping feature that highlights popular online shopping malls, and a rewards service through which customers will be able to accrue points based on their purchases.
Unlike Samsung Pay, those using Samsung Pay Mini will not be able to make offline payments at retail stores, as the app is designed for online payments. Samsung Pay includes a hardware tie-in that allows the service to work with older magnetic card readers, and that functionality is still limited to select Galaxy phones.
Samsung has announced that it will conduct a pre-launch trial of the app on February 6, in which customers in South Korea will be able to download the app from the Play Store.
Rolling out the app for non-Galaxy phones is a smart move, as it allows Samsung to reach a wider userbase while giving them a taste of what's possible with the full-fledged Samsung Pay service.
