Verizon is angering its customers once again, after the carrier decided to remove the Samsung Pay mobile payments app from the latest Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge handsets.
Samsung's latest flagship smartphones come with a slew of neat specs and features to compete at the high end of the smartphone market, and Samsung Pay is one of them.
For some reason, however, it seems that Verizon Wireless demanded that Samsung Pay be removed from the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. While it's not that uncommon for carriers to slightly modify their versions of various smartphones, removing a popular and useful feature like Samsung Pay seems like an unwarranted, bad move on Verizon's part.
In this mobile-driven world, mobile payment solutions are increasingly gaining ground and becoming more popular because they offer a simple, reliable and secure way of paying for one's purchases with minimum hassle.
Verizon has pulled some shady schemes on several occasions in the past, making users frustrated with various practices, but this could well be the cherry on top. Big Red has yet to offer a statement regarding its decision, but some speculation hints at a potential reason behind this move.
"Why? Well, given that Verizon is a member of the now-defunct Softcard group that is currently partnered with (read: taking money from) Android Pay, it seems probable that Samsung wasn't willing to cut Verizon in on Samsung Pay revenue - if there is any - to the degree they desired," Android Police points out. "And so, Verizon strong-armed Samsung into removing the app."
At this point, heading over to Google Play to search for a "Samsung Pay" app on the Verizon Galaxy S7 or S7 edge retrieves no results. However, it seems that the app may eventually become available for download via Google Play or Galaxy Apps in a few days, as Samsung will kick off a big promotion for Samsung Pay on March 11.
It remains to be seen whether the mobile payments app will indeed become available for download for the Verizon Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, but one thing's for sure: the app is definitely not preloaded as it should be, and Verizon should offer at least some explanation as to why it chose to remove it in the first place.
