Samsung Acquires LoopPay; Taking Head On With Apple Pay

After showcasing poor results for the last quarter of 2014, Samsung is feeling the heat to improve on its products by concentrating on design, specifications and pricing strategy too. Samsung has adopted a different strategy this time, to diversify its reliance from smartphones alone, to concentrate equally on chip manufacturing and OLED displays too. And now Samsung has announced about its acquisition of LoopPay. This acquisition had put to rest all the rumors in the industry about the two working closely on an upcoming project for building a competitor to Apple Pay.
LoopPay boasts its product to be an alternative to Apple Pay for non-Apple device manufacturers. LoopPay also claims that its product is compatible with the systems already installed at the retail shops in US. As part of the acquisition agreement, LoopPay founders George Wallner and Will Grayling will now be joining Samsung’s Mobile Division and will also contribute by helping Samsung with its mobile wallet plans.

LoopPay’s technology works by saving payment information from a credit or debit card’s magnetic stripe and then transmitting payment details to card readers instead of always displaying a physical card. Currently this works via an app and a hardware device, but Samsung claimed to get this technology imparted in its smartphones. For more on LoopPay, check this space. So instead of carrying their cards along for making payments, Samsung users can directly wave or place their smartphone in the vicinity of the receiving device.
Earlier in December 2014, it was reported that Samsung was in talks with LoopPay to launch a competitor to Apple Pay. At that time, the talks were considered to be more like a partnership rather than an acquisition.
Samsung has made it very clear that this acquisition is intended to create a direct competitor to Apple Pay. And with its plans to design it in a manner which is widely applicable, it has adopted a fierce mindset to battle with Apple Pay. LoopPay’s experience and its relations with banks, card networks and merchants will definitely help Samsung build a strong product. All this makes it mandatory for Apple to buckle up and put up a good competition over this.