Verizons Strips Samsung Pay from Galaxy Handsets
- Wednesday, March 9th, 2016
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US operator Verizon has removed Samsung Pay from Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge devices sold to its subscribers.
The payment app normally comes preloaded onto these devices but, according to Android Police, Verizon demanded that it be stripped from the devices it will be selling.
This decision is presumably down to Verizons involvement in mobile payments joint venture Softcard, which was absorbed into Android Pay after a troubled launch. Android Police speculates that there may have been a disagreement regarding Verizons cut of payments made through Samsung Pay.
The app will be available on Verizon handsets, however – users will be able to download it from the Google Play Store and Samsungs own Galaxy Apps after the handsets officially launch later this week. Nevertheless, that one added step takes away one of the big advantages that Samsung had on its side in the mobile payment wars: a huge customer base who already have the app loaded on their phones.