Samsung Fold 8 Series: India R&D Powers New Pay Now Feature

New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) South Korean electronics giant Samsung has included Pay Now feature, developed by its research and development team in India, in its upcoming flagship foldable smartphones, the company said on Monday.

Samsung Southwest Asia President and CEO JB Park said that Indian consumers rank significantly higher in AI adoption compared with the global average and the company's priority is not simply to expand its engineering workforce, but to create original technologies from India.

"By understanding how Indian consumers interact with technology, we identify opportunities to enhance their lifestyles, whether in financial management, smart home control or health alerts for the elderly. Those insights are being transformed into practical solutions that enrich everyday experiences," he said in a statement.

Samsung said Pay Now is an example of developing technology using insights from India and developing it by a research and development team in the country.

"Pay Now, a new feature within 'Now Brief' that debuted on Samsung's latest foldable smartphones, will be available exclusively to Indian consumers. Developed by engineers in Samsung's India R&D centres, the feature reminds users about upcoming bill payments and enables timely payments through Samsung Wallet," the statement said.


Samsung's 8th generation foldable smartphones-the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8-- which will sell in India at a starting price of Rs 1.79 lakh apiece, and Galaxy Z Flip8 at a starting price of Rs 1.24 lakh-have broken its previous pre-order records in India.

The new devices recorded over 2.71 lakh pre-orders within just 72 hours of their launch on July 22 in India.

Last year, Samsung India had taken 15 days to receive a similar number of pre-orders for its Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8, and Galaxy Z Flip8 have achieved remarkable success, with 45 per cent of pre-orders originating from tier 2 cities and beyond.

Park said Samsung has partnerships with reputed institutes such as the IITs as well as multiple startups.

"But more important than expanding our workforce is expanding our intellectual property. Any new technology that originates from India is especially important, and we believe the engineers in our R&D centres have that capability," he said.