According to a report recently published by Yonhap News, it appears that LG’s own take on the mobile payment system concept -- LG Pay -- will be launching in the United States some time within the first six months of this year. It is quite possible though that LG Pay will make its American debut with a new brand name -- LG Wallet. As reported by Android Police, a mobile app with an identical name was seen listed in Google Play last week, but it has since been removed during the weekend.
It was in June of last year when LG first rolled out its contactless mode of payment in its native country South Korea. The launch was facilitated through a software update deployment for one of its 2017 flagship phablets, the G6. LG Pay basically allows users to add a maximum of 10 of their most used cards, including credit, membership, and even transportation cards. As a mobile payment system, the service works by having people tap their LG smartphone against a credit card terminal, and then letting their fingerprints get scanned.
Mobile payment systems have increased in popularity in the last few years, especially after Apple introduced its Apple Pay offering more than three years ago. Other big phone maker brands, tech companies, and even retailers have since joined in on the party, notably Samsung with its Samsung Pay back in 2015, and of course, Google with its Android Pay (which will soon be merged under the Google Pay brand name, along with Google Wallet).
It goes without saying that LG has some catching up to do. According to the South Korean tech giant, its LG Pay service will be made available to American mobile users by way of its upcoming flagship devices this year, namely the G7 and the V40. By 2019, the company is looking to extend support to its midrange handsets.
Speaking of handsets, LG has hinted during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that it might be revising its mobile strategy, at least in terms of the timing of the release of its upcoming devices, as reported by the Korea Herald. The past years have seen the company typically unveil a new G model during the annual Mobile World Congress (this year, this event kicks off on February 26th). The general thinking is that LG is doing this so that it can compete with Samsung’s flagship offering, the Galaxy S, which usually debuts at the MWC (as a matter of fact, the world’s biggest seller of smartphones has already confirmed just this week that its Galaxy S9 will be officially introduced at the annual mobile tech show). But it is quite possible that for this year, LG may be looking to announce its new flagships on a different month, presumably to be able get the consumers’ full undivided attention.
