Samsung reportedly developing PayPal-powered smartwatch for mobile payments

Wether it be Android Wear or Tizen calling the shots, Samsung already has a lot of smartwatches on the market and it’s rumored that the South Korean electronics maker is currently working on a new high-tech timepiece that can process mobile payments. According to Business Korea, this unannounced smartwatch will reportedly rely on a fingerprint scanner to verify its wearer’s identity, and will use a payment processing platform developed by PayPal.

“We are currently developing the smartwatch equipped with fingerprint identification technology and relevant solutions through cooperation with PayPal, the world’s most renowned financial transaction service company, as well as Synaptics, a global company specialized in biometric verification,” an unnamed Samsung rep told Business Korea. “By the earliest, the third generation smartwatch to be released early next year will have this new system in which payment is authorized immediately when users identify themselves through biometric sensors such as a fingerprint or login.”

In addition to managing transactions, this new payment system will send users promotion notifications from nearby retailers based on their location. It’s unknown if the device will use Google’s Android Wear software or Samsung’s Tizen operating system, however it’s possible that we could see this new smartwatch as early as Mobile World Congress 2015.