Samsung's answer to Apple Pay is coming in the second half of this year

Wikimedia Common \ HLundgaard

How Samsung Pay might look in action

Samsung will release Samsung Pay in the second half of 2015, according to statements made by Samsung Electronics managing director Park Jin-young obtained by Korean news site, WhowiredKorea.

The company previously said that the service would arrive in the US and South Korea "this summer" on its flagship phones: The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Expansion to Europe and China was expected sometime after.

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Park's "second half of the year" timeline is more vague than Samsung's official "summer" agenda, suggesting that Samsung may be experiencing some delays in rolling out its rival to Apple Pay.

So far, Samsung has secured partnerships with American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and US Bank. It's not nearly as comprehensive as Apple's partner roster, a list that makes up around "90% of credit card purchase volume in the United States," according to the New York Times. Discover just recently signed on with Apple Pay.

In a clear indication that retailers can't ignore Apple Pay if they want to stay relevant, Best Buy caved in to accept Apple Pay earlier this week, despite helping to form a consortium (the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX) that actively resisted Apple Pay in favor of its own mobile payment standard, CurrentC.

Still, Samsung Pay could have potential for more wide-scale usage due to the fact that it uses standard Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, which almost all current payment terminals use to read the magnetic strip on the back of credit cards. Apple Pay, on the other hand, uses NFC technology and is only compatible with payment terminals with built-in NFC antennas, which not all retailers have upgraded to yet.