Samsung has announced a new API for developers to help manage event tickets, boarding passes, memberships, and coupons. Samsung Wallet will be a new application which brings all of these types of content into one place. Time and location-based push notifications will help users get a hold of the ticketing information.
If this sounds familiar, that's because iOS has had this thing called Passbook for awhile which does (and looks like) the same thing. Still, I have a feeling Android will have a leg-up on mobile ticketing since there's still no natively NFC-enabled iPhone out there.
Developers interested in getting started with the Samsung Wallet API can check out the documentation here. How many of you guys have used mobile ticketing before? Which kinds of apps do you use?
via: FrAndroid
Reader comments
Samsung unveils Wallet mobile app to manage tickets
Good on Samsung. Google really dropped the ball here. Google Wallet is not available anywhere but the US. Limited to a few stores. And doesn't support a lot of the basic functions that Passbook does.
Apple has copied plenty from Samsung/Android as well. (*cough* Notification Center *cough*), but I for one am happy that Samsung is keeping up with Apple features (yes, they look similar, but you wouldn't get confused which was which if you were an informed consumer (I don't think anyone thought the original MacOS was exactly the Xerox OS despite looking similar), just to keep the s3 a relevant competitor on the surface to the consumers who do not care about raw power and expandable memory, but want "siri" and "passbook" apps, but don't want an iPhone because everyone has them.
Is there any idea when this is going be out any shape or form? Most likely on the S4 right?
I need a briefcase app to manage all these wallets.
I only read about this thing two minutes ago and find that people are ALREADY talking Apple-v-Samsung again. How depressing is that???? We have already lived through two years of that pointless madness; please don't fill 2013 with more of the same.
Some means of carrying electronic ticket information seems to be beneficial. Smartphone will naturally be part of that and most people will need access to it. So, some form of cross platform "live and let live" cooperation will be needed to make this practical or we will have all the legal crap again and no blasted progress for the users.
Yes, NFC probably needs to be in that mix long term, but only a minority of devices support that natively at the moment. For now, could we encourage the cooperation issue, by focusing on technology that most of us already carry - regardless of platform. That is in all our interests.
Good on Samsung. Google Wallet was an utter flop. No international rollout, save the UK I believe. Too focused on shopping as opposed to a real wallet replacement.
iOS Passbook was a much better implementation. Sure it doesn't do payments. But it does everything else. And it does it better.
If Samsugn is taking cues from Apple, good on them. I hope Google steps up and relaunches Google Wallet with something more akin to iOS Passbook.
There are dozens of alarm clock apps, dozens of to do list apps, dozens of calendars, games that resemble angry birds....whats the issue? Why are we getting all indignant because samsung made something similar to something else?
I still don't see much of a point to this whether it is called Wallet OR Passbook. Google Now already gives me my boarding passes and movie tickets and I already have both Key Ring which serves up membership cards.
Alright Samsung..
Your Really Hard Headed..
You just can't let loose of Apple's coat tails can you?
Well.. Back to Court we go.
P.S.
I can't wait to see what you steal from our upcoming 5th Generation iPad..
Samsung is really working hard on another $1billion donation to Apple.
Oh noes someone's made an app that competes with another app that has the same functions of another app... Oh noes!!!
Watch out Google, Samsung is gunning for you. They want to rid themselves of Google, whether they will succeed is a different story. A wait and see for the ending to the story.
i like open standards and non-proprietary.
Agreed. That's why they're called "STANDARDS"
I like the idea of mobile ticketing, mobile boarding passes, etc., but I'm worried about something not working when I get to my destination, so I end up carrying a paper copy, which defeats the purpose.
For those who do use these mobile options, what backup systems are in place to protect against this? For instance, what do you do if you get to airport security with your mobile boarding pass, and their barcode reader goes down? Or if you get to a movie theater after buying a Fandango ticket, and their connection to Fandango isn't working?
It was only an issue for me once a couple years ago when Palm Beach Airport didn't support scanning yet. In that case, they just sent me down to print out a paper ticket. If I had been running late, it certainly could've been a problem. Nowadays, most major airports rely on barcode scanning even for paper tickets, so I think it's less of a risk.
The thing that really sets one mobile ticket app apart from others is auto-brightness adjust. Often if you have your brightness too low, the reader won't pick up the barcode. It really interrupts the flow on a boarding line and makes you look like an idiot. Good apps will temporarily adjust the brightness when you pull up the barcode.
I have started to notice at airport gates (in jfk's delta terminal for example) there are these small kiosk terminals set up in various locations. So that if you are at the gate and your cell phone no longer works or you can't access your electronic boarding pass, you can use the kiosks to print one out.
To me its a classic "mental" issue. Its that "just in case" argument. I want to have this paper boarding pass just in case. Very valid but it also tends to hold you back because of fear. But once you know that there is some kind of backup plan you will relax and not be so worried.
Interesting... I see samsungs tactinc- give the customer no reason to buy an iPhone over their galaxys. every feature. Next will be... uh imessage and then...well that's about the only thing missing
you mean sMessage.
Indeed.
S-Voice, S-Pen, S-Beam. Am I missing any? And what's with these names? Do they have a 3rd grader coming up with these things?
i think samsung is really trying to force google's hand to stop doing bizness with them huh. this is stepping on G Wallet & G Now toes. i Hope samsung does not thing they can make there on OS and better than google's android. just my two cents, carry on with your day.
Damn them for making a better product for their customers!
Well if Samsung includes this on all their phones then that will make it available to users on providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, etc...) I think Google is dropping the ball on Google Wallet since it is not available to anyone that wants to use it.
The carriers block Google wallet because the carriers have their own wallet coming out. If you want Google wallet and Google now I suggest getting a gsm based nexus phone
What makes you think verizon won't do the same to samsung's app?
But it sounds like samsung's wallet doesn't do financial transactions like G Wallet. They both share the word wallet but doesn't seem like the same type of application. None of the description implies I can go up to a paypass terminal and tap it with samsung wallet to pay for something.
So that's why I can't use Google Wallet!
D'oh!
with google wallet and google now, I have it already
Maybe Samsung will make this available on all their phones which would be nice since Google Wallet is not....
Can you pull up an Air Canada boarding pass on your phone without using email?
Yes it does.
"Still, I have a feeling Android will have a leg-up on mobile ticketing since there's still no natively NFC-enabled iPhone out there."
Only that this app doesn't support NFC.
Yeah, I mean more in the general sense of mobile ticketing rather than this app specifically.
Hey man the copying was so blatant that he had to try to get a jab at apple one way or another to make it seems like samsung innovated somehow. Can't say I am surprise since most folks on here thinks samsung is the most innovative tech company out there. But somehow they missed that samsung is using someone else's software on top of their hardware and keep f-ing it up by trying to clone ios like ui to it.
Wait....I thought Passbook was a pointless app.
Obvious Apple interface lift aside, you have to wonder if Google will have something to say here about Samsung using Wallet for branding.
Nah. Apple copies Android just the same.
Wow, it even sports the same interface as Passbook... I mean, I love Samsung products but this has gone too far, don't you guys think? :P
Are you serious? Or have you never actually seen passbook. The UI for Passbook is basically a bunch of cards in a wallet. This has a list of tickets. That's like saying Windows phone copies iPhone cause the icons are squarish.
I'm sorry, but that's splitting hairs to avoid facing reality.
The only reason Wallet exists is to copy Passbook. The tickets are a subtle spin, but the idea is fundamentally the same: skeuomorphic representations of your coupons and tickets in a vertical list. Samsung could have done something Passbook-like with a more abstracted or varied interface, but it took the lazy route instead.
Besides, after S Voice, are you really going to try and argue that Samsung is a font of originality? I don't think so. It uses Apple as a template for much of its work.
EDIT: Ok, ok. After checking out the Passbook app on my friend's iPhone, you make a very valid point sir.
Mind as well say every spreadsheet is a rip off of lotus 123, every word processor is a rip off of .. (I can't even remember who came first, wordperfect or some other thing from the mainframe era) or iphones and android phones is a rip off of ???
Who cares if the idea is the same? Technology is all about adopting other people's idea and making it better. That is how our entire industry has evolved over the last several decades. No one thing that comes out hardware or software is totally original. Whatever is "innovated" today is a by product of something someone else did previously.
You're oversimplifying here.
The issue is not top-level ideas, like spreadsheets or notification centers or mobile wallets. There are certain things that are functionally necessary. It's wrong when the imitation gets down to very specific elements that clearly didn't have to be used, and were only brought on to echo someone else's work.
Yes, technology is built around iterating on other ideas. But the problem is that Samsung isn't iterating -- with features like S Voice and Wallet, it's literally just waiting for Apple to produce something and copying it as closely as possible in features and design. You're confusing innovation with the tech equivalent of a fake Rolex watch.
+1 to what is now an intelligent, well thought out and civil dialogue (esp C&M). I wish the rest of the internet, generally speaking of course, would follow suit.
The typewriter came first!
Woo Hoo! Better late than never : )
Jesus christ let them do their damn job. Chill out. They don't need you telling them what to post and when.