New Samsung Pay TV ad takes shots at Apple Pay's retail reach
A new Samsung TV ad, featuring comedian Hannibal Buress, continues a theme of pointing out that Samsung Pay can be used in stores where Apple Pay isn't supported.
In the commercial, Buress enters Katz's Delicatessen in New York City and asks to pay with his phone, only to be told "You mean like Apple Pay? We don't have that." Buress then explains that he means Samsung Pay, which "kind of works everywhere," even on "janky" terminals like the one at Katz's.
Samsung Pay is based on technology from LoopPay, which was acquired by Samsung in early 2015. Unlike Apple Pay, which requires that a merchant support both NFC and Apple's specific platform, Samsung Pay can be used virtually anywhere since it works with conventional magnetic card readers as well as NFC. Many American retailers have yet to upgrade to NFC-ready terminals.
The service's main limitations are that in the U.S., a device must be on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, or Verizon, and Samsung currently has a much smaller number of supporting card issuers, among them Citi, Chase, and Bank of America. Compatible devices include the four phones in the S6 series and the Note 5.
Apple Pay's retail presence should expand in 2016, thanks to launches in more countries -- most notably China -- and efforts to add merchants in existing markets. In the U.S., partners like Cinnabon, Starbucks, KFC, and JCPenney should go live this year.
In the commercial, Buress enters Katz's Delicatessen in New York City and asks to pay with his phone, only to be told "You mean like Apple Pay? We don't have that." Buress then explains that he means Samsung Pay, which "kind of works everywhere," even on "janky" terminals like the one at Katz's.
Samsung Pay is based on technology from LoopPay, which was acquired by Samsung in early 2015. Unlike Apple Pay, which requires that a merchant support both NFC and Apple's specific platform, Samsung Pay can be used virtually anywhere since it works with conventional magnetic card readers as well as NFC. Many American retailers have yet to upgrade to NFC-ready terminals.
The service's main limitations are that in the U.S., a device must be on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, or Verizon, and Samsung currently has a much smaller number of supporting card issuers, among them Citi, Chase, and Bank of America. Compatible devices include the four phones in the S6 series and the Note 5.
Apple Pay's retail presence should expand in 2016, thanks to launches in more countries -- most notably China -- and efforts to add merchants in existing markets. In the U.S., partners like Cinnabon, Starbucks, KFC, and JCPenney should go live this year.
Comments
I can't imagine giving the waiter my iPhone to scan at the register. Do they bring the terminal to you?
I dislike Samsung's practices as much as the next guy, but that simply isn't true.
The ORIGINAL implementation for LoopPay allowed cards to be used with any terminal WITHOUT the bank having to change their backend software. In this case the card number was literally broadcast over the air where anyone could see it. This also caused Chip/PIN terminals to give you the "Please insert your Chip card" message, as if you tried to swipe your card (Chip cards can't be swiped in terminals that accept Chips). LoopPay was also updating their system to allow Chip/PIN cards to work with MST by having banks update their software to support it.
Samsung decided to not use this feature (allow any cards to work) and went with the same tokenization system Apple Pay uses. This immediately prevented the use of the majority of cards as now the banks have to update their software to work with Samsung Pay (just like they do with Apple Pay).
Where Samsung is being deceitful is claiming their system works at almost ANY terminal. While this is true, if your bank isn't signed on then your card won't work. In short, Samsung is only telling you HALF the story. IF your bank is signed up THEN Samsung Pay will work on almost any terminal.
Last time I checked Samsung had 30 something banks signed on. Apple Pay is well over 900 (closer to 1,000). Samsung rollout of banks is going slow, and it's a race between how fast they can sign up banks and how fast merchants start updating their terminals. At some point in the future, Samsung Pay will no longer have any advantage because magstripe terminals will disappear. So it's going to be tough for Samsung to convince banks to update their software for a system that's being phased out. Meanwhile, Apple Pay is trying to get banks to update their systems for the newest technology (NFC terminals).
Pretty easy to see who will come out on top in this race.
Regardless, there is no way for the phone to pay at the register without your finger being there to authorize it.
For kicks, I suppose you could strap your Apple Watch on the server, put the pin code in and send them off to pay with it though.
Haven't used it at a restaurant, one of my few remaining cash uses.
I frequently find that even with new terminals that have NFC and a chip card slot, that they frequently don't work. I was in a Fairway last night - Apple Pay didn't work and when I attempted to use the chip slot, I was told that wasn't working either and I had to slide the card.
Apple may have a lot of banks signed up, but they need to do a better job getting retailers and restaurants to sign up. Restaurants are trickier because the old model of a server taking your credit card to a back room or register doesn't work. IMO, Apple Pay (or even Samsung's system) is almost totally useless until it becomes ubiquitous because until that time, you can't leave your wallet at home. And it's not really faster using Apple Pay than swiping a credit card. In my local supermarket, which does accept Apple Pay, you still have to approve the amount and sign the terminal.
I've been surprised at the number of retailers who haven't yet switched to the new terminals because it's my understanding that retailers are now responsible for fraud if the chip slot isn't used.
No small to medium sized business deals directly with a credit card company. They all go through payment processors. So I don't really understand why Apple doesn't have these payment processors signed up. Or does Apple work around them? What am I missing?
And while I realize that there is lots of fraud, in almost 40 years of using credit cards, I've only experienced fraud twice: once a credit card was stolen from my daughter's house, but the credit card company caught it immediately when the thief tried to use it and called to ask if we had made the purchase, and once there were two small charges from a bar in Texas (I live in NY). Since the charge was so small, I have a feeling that the server manually punched in the credit card number, punched it in wrong, but still managed to get the check digit correct and it turned out to be my card #. The credit card company removed the charge immediately when I pointed it out.