Samsung on Wednesday introduced a new smartphone application called "Wallet," which bears a striking resemblance to Apple's own Passbook feature.
The new Wallet application for Android carries store cards, event tickets, boarding passes, and coupons. As noted by The Verge, the resemblance to Apple's Passbook is striking, even down to the icon Samsung chose to use.
Like Passbook, it will store all of a user's cards in one location. It will also offer time- and location-based push notifications to make it easy for users to access their cards.
And again like Passbook, the software will also automatically update with information such as membership points available, or the gate from which a flight will be departing.
Partners also include a number of companies that were among the first adopters of Apple's Passbook: Major League Baseball, Lufthansa, and Walgreens, to name a few. Samsung's Wallet application will not support NFC payment features — something Apple's Passbook also lacks.
Samsung's announcement of Wallet, and its similarities to Apple's Passbook, are noteworthy because Apple for years has been accusing Samsung of copying its devices. The two companies are engaged in a number of patent infringement suits in which Apple has charged Samsung with copying the look and feel of the iPhone and the iPad.
Passbook debuted on the iPhone last year as part of the iOS 6 mobile operating system. It's become particularly popular in a trial run at Major League Baseball stadiums, prompting the league to announce this week that Passbook will be accepted at 13 MLB stadiums in the 2013 season.