Mid-range Samsung phones may soon get Samsung Pay

Following India’s demonetization strategy, Samsung is planning to cash in on the move by introducing Samsung Pay to mid-range devices including the popular Galaxy J series. If the pilot program is successful, more mid-range Galaxy phones worldwide might soon gain access to Samsung’s contactless payment service.

Of course, if a country – like India – isn’t full of newer NFC payment terminals, the fall-back option of MST, which works with all existing magnetic strip terminals, is a great solution, something neither Apple nor Google will be able to offer with Apple Pay and Android Pay. According to Mashable, “recently-manufactured batches of several budget and mid-level Samsung smartphones have the hardware capability to support Samsung Pay”.

If a device isn’t equipped with a fingerprint scanner for authentication, a PIN can be used to authorize payments instead. Samsung recently launched Pay in India but the service was limited in its rollout.

If the trial run on mid-range phones goes well, we might well see it enabled on budget devices in India next and then on mid-range and budget phones in other countries in the near future. Mashable reports the rollout could occur as soon as the end of this month.