Samsung Pay to come pre-installed on most Samsung phones in 2017

Starting next year, mobile payments app Samsung Pay will come pre-installed on the majority of newly-made Samsung handsets. This move is now possible, because the fingerprint scanners that serve as an authentication mechanism for the app are increasingly cheaper to produce and will be implemented in every future model except for some low-end devices.

The app itself was released in August 2015 in the U.S. and South Korea, and has since expanded to China, Brazil, Australia, Spain and Singapore. Samsung is also looking to spread its service to more countries as Russia, Thailand and Malaysia will join the list by the end of the year.

The Soeul-based manufacturer has secured deals with over 500 major global banks and big credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express for their mobile payments service. This makes Samsung Pay compatible with a lot of retail services as over 85% of U.S. cards support it.

A version for non-Samsung smartphones called Samsung Pay Mini is also expected to become available next month, but iPhone users won't be able to benefit from it as Apple recently refused to add it to the App Store.

source: Business Korea via Android Authority