New Samsung devices ramp up large-screen efforts

Samsung unveiled two new smartphones Thursday to ramp up its efforts to win over consumers seeking large-screen devices, and announced launch dates for its mobile payment service.

The moves are aimed at keeping the South Korean giant atop the global smartphone market and countering US rival Apple, which has made gains with its large-screen iPhone 6 and 6-Plus and its tap-to-pay feature.

At a New York media event, Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S6 edge+, the latest update for its flagship device, and Galaxy Note5, its main device in the "phablet" market.

"Today the journey continues in the large-screen category that Samsung created," said J.K. Shin, Samsung's head of IT and mobile communications.

The S6 edge+ and Note5 each have a 5.7-inch display, but the S6 has smaller overall dimension and a curved screen.

The company also announced that its Samsung Pay service would roll out in South Korea on August 20 and in the US on September 28, and that it would launch in Britain, Spain and China with partners to be named in each market.

Shin said he expects wide adoption because Samsung Pay "doesn't cause small business to upgrade their terminals and will be accepted almost everywhere on day one."

Samsung has remained atop the global smartphone market even though its sales have been slipping in the past year.

According to IDC, Samsung led the market in the second quarter with a 21.7 percent market share, even though sales dipped from a year earlier and its market share was below the 24.8 percent in the same period a year ago.

Apple, which briefly took the lead in the fourth quarter of 2014 with its new iPhones, saw its market share rise more than two points from a year earlier to 14.1 percent, IDC said.