LG’s mobile payments service LG Pay hasn’t received much attention since it launched with the LG G6 earlier this year, but that might be changing in the coming months. An LG executive (via Korea Herald) said in a meeting with journalists that the service will be coming to lower-end handsets at some point next year, and will also eventually be expanding to unspecified “global markets”…
A report from ETNews in Korea suggests that LG’s mobile payments service will not be smartphone based. At least, not exclusively. A ‘White Card’ has leaked showing a digital credit-card sized device which will be able to store multiple credit/debit cards’ details and enable a user to pay from any account, using just the single LG Pay card. In essence, it’s LG’s version of the Coin card which launched on KickStarter a couple of years back.
The mobile payments industry is getting more crowded by the month. Early this morning, LG confirmed on its Facebook page that it will be entering the market with LG Pay, and has signed up a couple of Korean partners to do so. The company has joined forces with Shinhan Card and KB Kookmin Card in its home country, but didn’t say when the service is going live, or when it’ll expand to international markets.
The service will work on most LG phones, new or old. Although the company has been light on detail, we’re assuming that means those with built in NFC. Although, conceivably, it could be like Samsung Pay in that it works with both contactless NFC card readers as well as traditional Magstrip ones. Like Samsung and Apple, the service will only work on its own devices and isn’t cross-platform or cross-manufacturer.
Although we’re not surprised that LG has decided to follow in the example of Sammy, it’s still bemusing that any Android OEM should seek to release their own payment system when Android Pay is already here and will eventually work on most devices as long as they have an NFC antenna.
We’re skeptical of LG’s chances of success in a crowded market, but you can be sure that — in the future — LG’s mobile payment app will become yet another piece of bloatware to add to an already bursting collection of unnecessary duplicate apps and services.