LG Pay will launch in the US by the first half of 2018

LG Pay, LG’s mobile payment system, has been a long time coming. After all, it has been available South Korea since last June but has yet to leave the comforts of LG’s home country.

That looks to change soon, as LG announced that LG Pay will make its way to the U.S. by June, reports Yonhap News.

LG confirmed the news, saying that LG Pay will first launch with the company’s next flagship smartphone, which is rumored to be announced in March and launch in April. LG is expected to rebrand the long-standing ‘G’ line, but until we learn what the new naming convention will be, the G7 will remain the title for LG’s next flagship.

LG Pay will not only be for premium smartphones though — LG plans to expand its mobile payment system to its mid-range smartphones in the US sometime in 2019.

As a recap, LG Pay lets you place your device near a payment terminal, approve of the purchase with your fingerprint, and wait for the transaction to be completed. Apart from using NFC, LG Pay also uses Wireless Magnetic Communication (WMC) technology that lets you use it at payment terminals that have not been updated for modern times.

LG has plenty of work to do to catch up to the likes of Samsung, which has its Samsung Pay platform available on 12 devices and in 14 countries. Even Android Pay, which was recently combined with Google Wallet to form Google Pay, is in 17 countries and can be used on Android devices with NFC functionality.

As such, it will be an uphill battle for LG to convince people to use its mobile payment platform. Not only does it have to compete with Samsung in South Korea, but its market penetration in the US is meager compared to Samsung and Google.

It will not be enough for LG to provide an alternative — it must prove what benefit LG Pay provides in contrast to the competition.