Samsung Wallet returns, richer than ever

Korean manufacturer Samsung has just unveiled the latest redesigned version of its famous Samsung Wallet. If mobile wallets have had trouble making their mark in the world, Samsung is offering its Wallet multiple centralized features today in order to impose it as an everyday tool for its users.

FACTS

• Users of Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones will now have access to a new version of Samsung Wallet. The Wallet now combines its Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass features to provide access to :

  • Digital IDs,

  • payment cards

  • loyalty cards,

  • digital keys (with SmartThnigs, notably compatible with Hyundai and BMW models),

  • boarding passes (Korean Airlines for the moment),

  • ...

• It also offers a Samsung Blockchain Wallet feature to allow users to track the prices of major crypto-currencies.

• The new Samsung Wallet is presented as ultra-secure thanks to biometric data and the in-house Samsung Knox platform.

• This is a necessary promise as Samsung Wallet is also expected to store digital versions of official documents later this year, such as driving licences and student IDs.

• Six markets will initially be affected by the rollout of the new Samsung Wallet service. It will be available in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

CHALLENGES

• Centralising for better service: This new Samsung Wallet finally unifies the Samsung Pay and Pass services to offer a single point of access to numerous everyday services, both financial and access-related. The aim is to offer an ever more ergonomic and relevant service.

• Relaunching a promising tool: Samsung Wallet was originally launched in 2013 in Korea and the United States. But the democratisation of smartphones worldwide has not been synonymous with that of wallets, which have long been confronted with issues of service interoperability, security and compliance. Nevertheless, the smartphone remains, more than ever, a Swiss Army knife for everyday use and Samsung is now relaunching its offer with the hope, this time, of relying on a multifunctional model to convince the greatest number of people. A gamble that will remain subject to the signing of multiple partnerships for Samsung, in particular to make its digital key services democratisable.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Smartphone manufacturers are currently working hard to relaunch their wallets. In addition to Samsung, it is also Apple that has re-launched itself in this battle last March, by announcing that its digital wallet was becoming capable of storing identity documents.

• Last May, Google announced a major overhaul of its Google Pay application. Its ambition? Like its main competitors, the American web giant was looking to boost the use of its wallet in order to capture a now unequalled wealth: data.