“Making smartphones that run Google’s Android mobile operating system is less profitable than it once was, so Samsung is increasingly looking to software and services for new sources of income,” Alistair Barr and Jonathan Cheng report for The Wall Street Journal. “The shift can put Samsung at odds with Google, its long-time Android partner. Nowhere is this tension clearer than in mobile payments, where both companies are working on their own services. ”
“Samsung acquired LoopPay this week, getting technology that enables contact-less payments from phones on most store checkout terminals in the U.S.,” Barr and Cheng report. David Eun, head of Samsung’s Global Innovation Center, and former Google employee, “downplayed talk of tension between Samsung and Google, describing the Internet giant as ‘a super-important strategic partner.’ But he said Samsung must stay committed to its own users, and “committed to creating the different experiences and devices that they want.”
“Dual payments efforts by Google and Samsung raise the prospect that new Samsung smartphones could have two payment services, which could be confusing for some users, said Tim Sloane, a payments analyst at Mercator Advisory Group,” Barr and Cheng report. “That’s especially true in comparison to Apple’s latest iPhones with its Apple Pay service, he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Android. Too many crooks in the kitchen.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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