LG Electronics said on Thursday its third-quarter operating profit fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier, dragged down by a record quarterly loss for its mobile division. The world's No. 2 television maker behind Samsung Electronics said its July-September profit was 283 billion won ($248 million). Revenue for the quarter dropped 5.7 percent to 13.2 trillion won.

LG's mobile division reported its worst-ever quarterly operating loss of 436.4 billion won, its sixth straight quarter in the red, offsetting a record 381.5 billion won profit for the TV division and strong performance of its Home Appliance & Air Solution business.

LG said it shipped 13.5 million smartphones in the quarter, with North America reporting a 14 percent increase in sales from the second quarter. Priorities for the final quarter of the year will include increasing sales of the new LG V20 smartphone and mass-tier K and X series and finalizing business structural improvements in the mobile division to be better prepared for the challenges ahead.

LG added its fourth-quarter profit would be weaker than the third quarter's due to higher promotional expenses and weaker earnings for its appliances business due to seasonal weakness.

LG Chooses MST Technology for Its LG Pay Mobile Payment System

LG Electronics is changing its strategy for its mobile payment system set for release in spring of 2017. The Korean company will adopt the MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology for its payment system, scrapping previous plans to use a White Card method.

MST is already used by Samsung's 'Samsung Pay’ system. MST allows Samsung Pay to be used by all card readers currently available at the market, offering more convenience than a battery-powered White Card’s payment system.

The MST technology is expected to be supported in LG's next G6 flagship smartphone. The company has already selected partners that will provide components required for the MST support and will soon start working with credit card companies in order to link its new payment system.

The G6 will also be equipped with NFC and wireless charging functions.

MST technology allows payments to take place automatically when a smartphones is placed near magnetic credit card readers. Mobile payments that are introduced by Apple and Google are based on NFC (Near Field Communication) and they need separate readers.

On the other hand the White Card method requires consumers to have a separate card in order to take advantage of the mobile payment system.