LG is getting involved in the mobile payment game, as trademarks for G Pay have been filed by the company in South Korea and the United States. LG is entering a heavily saturated market, with solutions already available from Apple (Apple Pay), Google (Android Pay), and Samsung (Samsung Pay). During an overseas press meeting, LG executive director Kim Jong Hoon confirmed LG’s plan, stating that the company is waiting for the appropriate time to make the announcement.
At this time, all we know is that G Pay will likely use NFC technology, just as we see from Apple and Google, but it is unclear if LG intends to work in additional technology such as Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), like we have from Samsung. MST allows select device owners to use mobile payments on older credit card terminals that don’t feature NFC, relying solely on magnetic signals replicating that of a card swipe.
According to etnews, LG has been studying the mobile payments market and competitors since early 2015, and is already in talks with credit card companies to help plan a successful launch.
My question is, why do we need so many mobile payment services? LG device owners with NFC devices can easily use Android Pay, so it seems unnecessary for LG to jump in, too. While I still think competition in most areas of the industry are good, unless LG can bring some type of innovation to the sector (like Samsung has with MST), it would only be noise and clutter for consumers.
Share your thoughts below.
Via: etnews
This post was last modified on May 20, 2016 10:11 am