LG Pay US Launch Date Confirmed

On the heels of Google merging Android Pay and Google Wallet into one Google Pay to rule them all, another mobile payment system looms over the horizon. While CES was ongoing half a world away, over at Korea LG revealed its plans to bring its existing LG Pay system to the US by the middle of 2018 but with a confusing name change. If and when it does, it will be directly competing with Samsung Pay in features.

Samsung Pay has one advantage over its biggest competitors, Apple Pay and Google Pay, formerly Android Pay/Google Wallet. In addition to the regular NFC method, it uses Magnetic Secure Transmission or MST, a technology it acquired from LoopPay. That makes it compatible with traditional swipe-based point-of-sale terminals, making it available on more stores and outlets than any.

LG Pay uses the same technology. Or rather, it finally did after several iterations. Initially, LG was rumored to be developing a programmable "White Card" to be used in traditional terminals. It eventually dropped that and adopted what it calls Wireless Magnetic Communication, though the source of the technology is still unknown.

LG says that it plans to launch LG Pay in the US by June, though it will curiously be using "LG Wallet" as the name. This would probably introduce some confusion and people might end up calling it LG Pay anyway. There is also no word on whether its use of a similar MST feature will land it a patent lawsuit from Samsung.

Also like Samsung, LG is planning to expand LG Pay's, or LG Wallet's, compatibility to its mid-range devices like the K series phones. Those won't, however, support the WMC feature due to lack of the required hardware. And it won't be happening soon anyway, as LG plans to only bring LG Pay to such phones by 2019.

SOURCE: Yonhap News Agency