Samsung is the latest tech company to attempt to replace your real wallet with a digital wallet stored on your phone. Samsung Wallet, a new mobile wallet for storing digital keys, boarding passes, ID cards, and credit cards, was announced on Thursday by the business. In recent weeks, Apple and Google both announced big improvements to their respective virtual wallet programmes.
Samsung revealed its mobile wallet in February alongside the Galaxy S22, but the platform was just recently introduced on Thursday. Samsung Wallet is the result of the merger of two previous services. Samsung Pay, which stores payment cards and vaccination data on mobile devices, and Samsung Pass, which maintains passwords and login information for apps and websites, are combined in this software.
The unified app is a step forward in Samsung’s efforts to better compete with Apple and Google’s services. Galaxy device owners may move their information directly from the Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pass applications to Samsung Wallet via an app update.
Later this year, Samsung Wallet will allow formal forms of identity including driver’s licenses and student IDs. In May, Google also announced that it is collaborating with governments to integrate IDs into Google Wallet. In certain states, Apple Wallet already offers virtual IDs.
Samsung also wants its wallet app to act as a center for digital keys to your car and house, something that the iPhone currently does. Samsung Wallet will interact with the firm’s SmartThings platform, and the company claims it is collaborating with nine home security providers on virtual house keys. Digital vehicle keys will be supported by Samsung Wallet for certain BMW, Hyundai, and Genesis cars. Samsung’s first digital boarding pass storage partner will be Korean Air.
Samsung’s new Wallet software will allow users to manage their cryptocurrency in addition to standard payment options like credit, debit, and loyalty cards. Samsung’s Knox security software protects the whole platform.
The notion of replacing physical credit cards with digital ones is gaining traction in the United States.In-store mobile payment systems will be utilized by more than half of all smartphone users in the United States by 2025, according to an eMarketer projection from 2021.
Now, digital giants are working on more complete alternatives to the traditional wallet, a goal that Google and Apple have emphasized during recent news conferences. “We’re working hard on our aim to replace your actual wallet with Apple Wallet,” said Corey Fugman, Apple’s senior director of Wallet and Apple Pay, during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference last week.
In the following years, adoption is expected to skyrocket. According to a survey released in July 2021 by financial technology startup Boku and market research firm Juniper Research, one in every two individuals would use a mobile wallet by 2025. Samsung Wallet’s debut is another indication that tech businesses are increasingly dependent on applications and services to retain existing customers.
