Competing biometric mobile payment services Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have revealed plans to launch in Singapore.While Apple Pay has already arrived this week, marking the mobile-payment service's expansion into its sixth country and its second in Asia, Samsung is scheduled to arrive in the island-state in the next quarter.For Apple, Singapore residents are only able to use American Express cards right now, but Apple says support for credit and debit cards from Visa and banks including DBS, UOB, and Standard Chartered will follow in the “coming months.”Samsung Pay will be launched in Singapore in partnership with major payment networks including MasterCard and Visa, and major banks including DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered.”We are extremely excited that Singapore is the first market in Southeast Asia to roll out Samsung Pay,” said Injong Rhee, EVP and Head of R&D, Software and Services of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. “Singapore's connectivity and openness are ideal conditions for our new mobile service to thrive, together with the interest and readiness of consumers here in adopting this new method of payment.”Analysts have been uncertain of the impact that Apple Pay will have.”I think that consumer adoption of Apple Pay will be slower than expected in Singapore,” Ms Ng Zhi Ying, a researcher at Forrester, said to Channel News Asia.”The use of contactless card payments is increasing in Singapore, and consumers are comfortable with using itߪ but it will take time before these wallets become more convenient for customers and for customers to realise the benefits and additional value that digital wallets bring,” she added.

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