Samsung revealed their next counter to Apple’s iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and Apple Pay. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are being decried by most people as shameless copies of the phones that have brought Apple so much success.
Hard to dispute that. After all, Samsung did ditch a number of features that helped distinguish their phones from Apple’s. Remember all those Samsung commercials that poked fun at the iPhone’s battery life and that quaint non-removable battery? Yup, Samsung saw the light, switched from plastic to metal and a non-removable battery. Along the way, they ditched another Samsung selling point, the removable SD card.
They’ve also improved their camera (adding the little bump that goes with it) and replaced the cheap plastic with Gorilla Glass 4, front and back, an effort to bring their hardware more in line with Apple’s.
What they’ve really done is scrub most of the originality from their product, making the safe move by simply following Apple. I say most of the originality because the S6 Edge does feature a screen that wraps around the edge of the phone, allowing the phone to flash for incoming phone calls, even if it is face down. Time will tell if that feature is an innovation or a nuisance. But I digress.
Perhaps the most significant feature in the new S6 is the improved (allegedly) fingerprint sensor. Samsung recently acquired LoopPay, a payment processing technology that mimics the magnetic strip on your credit card. They’ve also rolled out a new payment scheme called (wait for it) Samsung Pay that seems straight off the Apple Pay playbook. Getting the fingerprint sensor right is critical here.
From the New York Times Q&A on Samsung Pay:
Q. How secure is Samsung Pay?
Samsung Pay, like Apple Pay, promises to be more secure than plastic. With both services, the merchant gets a substitute 16-digit card number stored on the device. A verification code is created for each transaction, based in part on unique keys on the phone. Even if hackers get that substitute number, they need the actual phone for the verification code.
That said, LoopPay’s stand-alone technology uses the regular card number, and magnetic signals are easy to detect and replicate. Samsung is working with both Visa and MasterCard to make substitute numbers available with LoopPay on the phones to boost security. James Anderson, a senior vice president for mobile at MasterCard, says the bank issuing the card needs to participate. If they don’t, some card holders might not be able to make mobile payments, even with the right phone. Samsung says participating banks will include American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank.
LoopPay is interesting, but it is mired in the present, mimicking the magnetic strip already in everyone’s wallet. As to Samsung Pay, it’s simply a case of copy, copy, copy. The problem for Samsung is that they are on the same side of the fence as Google (being an Android phone), Xiaomi, and others. To succeed, they will have to stand out from the crowd. By jettisoning the features that make their phones unique, they’ve lost the ability to do so. Perhaps they will be satisfied with being the most Apple of all the Android phones.
To me, Samsung’s latest move is disappointing. Rather than push the ball forward, they’re back on their heels. Not chess so much. More like follow-the-leader.