Huawei Pay might cross the Atlantic and make its way to the US
It’s been a year since Huawei announced its own mobile payment service that crosses paths with the likes of Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and others, but it has remained a China-exclusive service since the announcement. News hit the wire that this could change with a launch in Europe, and now we’re learning the same could happen in the US in the near future.
Huawei filed a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and though the application was accepted, it has not yet been examined. According to the language used in the application page for Huawei Pay, the USPTO has up to three months to investigate, which means we could see the mobile payment service launch by year’s end.
There are a few possibilities here, the first being that Huawei could launch its mobile payment service alongside a certain AI-centric smartphone that could eventually make its way to the US. This hinges on when the Mate 10 will launch in the country, and if the Mate 9’s US availability is any baseline, that launch could happen in early 2018.
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There also exists the possibility that Huawei Pay for the US could be announced on its own, but given Huawei’s relative lack of presence in the market, it might be smarter to have the mobile payment service launch alongside some hardware.
Regardless of how Huawei chooses to announce Huawei Pay for the US, it can be argued that it was an inevitable move. The likes of Apple, Samsung, and even Google already have their own mobile payment services, and for Huawei, the world’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer, to not have a mobile payment solution out there is a glaring hole. Yes, Huawei Pay is available in China, Huawei’s home turf, but the company is a global presence at this point.
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