LG Pay Launch Delayed

LG Pay won’t be making its debut at the Mobile World Congress this year, an LG official has confirmed.

Speaking to The Korea Times, LG said it has decided to hold off the launch of its mobile payments system beyond the big mobile commerce event but denied commenting further as to why. But a comment from a spokesperson gave some indication as to why — without giving many other details.

“LG Electronics has delayed the official launch of LG Pay to the second quarter of this year to help the new LG flagship smartphone — G5 — receive more media attention,” an LG official told The Korea Times.

There was some speculation that the delay was because LG Pay hadn’t gained the necessary support from major credit card issuers, but the spokesperson also denied those claims.

As for an official launch date? That’s still to be officially released, but it is known for now that LG will plan on debuting its G5 smartphone on Feb. 21 in Barcelona. And, from the sounds of it, that will be a pretty important launch for LG as the company could use some attention in the smartphone space.

“LG can’t afford to see another failure of the G5 amid challenging market situations after its earlier V10 smartphone apparently failed to get much traction,” an official at one of LG’s technology affiliates told The Korea Times.

And the same goes for LG Pay, which has already been the subject of plenty of rumors that everyone is waiting for official confirmation on. These include the chatter that suggests LG may have a universal payments card as part of its LG Pay launch.

The “White Card” that leaked described the potential future of the payment method. These details were obtained by Korean outlet ETnews. What the details show is that LG Pay is similar to the Coin smart card. Coin is best known as the all-in-one connected card (credit, debit, gift, loyalty, membership cards) that consumers can use in place of the stack of cards they carry in their wallets.

This card, according to the report, enables payments that take the card beyond just a typical payment card; it also allows customers to take money out from an ATM from a variety of accounts. The card needs to be charged in order to be used.

Still, regardless of the format LG Pay rolls out in, there’s plenty of pressure on the company to perform.

“If LG Pay fails to get attention from the media as much as the company wants, then things will get worse,” an official said. “The G5 will be the message that LG still has the ability to stay with chief competitors.”