Samsung Pay (NFC+MST) has little advantage in Europe compare than USA

Samsung Pay, seen here running on the Galaxy S6 Edge, will be on roughly equal footing with Apple Pay in Europe.

BARCELONA -- Samsung wants its new phones to become your wallet, yesterday unveiling its Samsung Pay mobile payments system, which is going to arrive on its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones.

Samsung has said its payment tech will be coming to Europe following a roll-out in the US and South Korea in the summer, but how will Samsung's scheme work in European countries, and is it likely to take off?

This is great for Samsung in the US, where loads of tills still only have mag-stripe readers, but Samsung's advantage in the UK and Europe is dramatically lessened.

"Samsung can in theory be used more broadly due to the magstripe side of things, but in Europe the magstripe is really being forgotten about as a technology compared to the US, and is pretty removed in most markets," Ubaghs said. "Even finding the card swipe portion of a point of sale device is likely to be fiddly and unclear to many consumers in Europe who are out of the habit, and I can only imagine what staff at the till will make of consumers waving their phones about their registers if they aren't sure what's going on."

With NFC and MST, Samsung's payment tech is comprehensive -- but the obstacles that stand between Samsung and mobile payment domination aren't merely technical, especially in Europe where paying for items with a tap is no longer a novelty. Why pay with a Samsung smartphone when it's no easier than using a card?

Europe supports PIN & Chip payment method, which is that cards include IC and PIN number is necessary to use a card to protect from to be stolen. In this case, Samsung's MST method can be just overhead. But it's true their NFC can be effect to Europe like Apple.
In the mobile payment market, is it possible smart phone can card-cutting?
It is important there is great merit to credit cards because they don't need batteries.
Although NFC can be active even power off, the finger printing requires battery surely. It means the method of smart phone's payment can be uncomfortable compare than existed method.
If mobile payment can't show the merit overcome its competitors, it is not easy.

Source - CNET : Why Samsung Pay has little advantage over Apple Pay in Europe