Report: Samsung Pay Coming to Lower-Cost Phones

 
The gift-giving season may be over, but Samsung reportedly has one more present for owners of lower-priced smartphones.
 
Samsung Pay Global Co-General Manager Thomas Ko this week told Reuters that the mobile payment service will expand to more handsets "within the next year."
 
Initially introduced in South Korea via a handful of phones, Samsung Pay arrived in the U.S. in late September alongside the Galaxy Note 5 $349.99 at Best Buy and Galaxy S6 Edge $299.99 at Best Buy devices. The program uses NFC and magnetic stripe transmission (MST) for tap-to-pay functionality compatible with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

Currently available on all major U.S. wireless networks and Galaxy S6£389.97 at Amazon, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus$349.99 at Best Buy, and Note 5 smartphones, the mobile wallet is expected to reach more lower-priced devices soon. There is no word, however, on which smartphones will join the lineup.

Samsung also reportedly plans to soon add online payment support — a perk already available to Android Pay and Apple Pay users.
 
Samsung did not immediately respond to TCMall's request for comment.

The tech titan entered the mobile payment arena in February with its acquisition of LoopPay, a mobile wallet firm that lets users pay with their phones.

A recent LoopPay breach, however, did not affect Samsung Pay, the company promised in October. An attack by the "Codoso Group" or "Sunshock Group" affected three servers on LoopPay's internal office network, separate from the one that handles mobile payment transactions.

Apple, meanwhile, debuted its own payment system in the fall of 2014 on its iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and new iPads; the service also works on the Apple Watch.