LG exits smartphone market after steady losses
Korean electronics company LG will leave the smartphone market in July after it failed to match growing competition from China.
Once the third-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world in 2013, LG struggled with the transition to touchscreen smartphones which made its exit inevitable.
Despite arriving early to the smartphone party, introducing a touchscreen device before the iPhone, it was late to fully adopt Google’s Android operating system, which allowed Samsung to gain an early advantage.
The company’s smartphone division has failed to make a profit for almost six years, stumbling to losses of around £3.2bn in that time.
LG’s market share in mobile phones peaked in 2009 before smartphones were found far and wide. In the meantime, Apple and Samsung have dominated the smartphone market.
The phone maker’s selling point was that it was more affordable, as handsets sold at around 26 per cent that of the average iPhone and 67 per cent of Samsung’s blended average, according to Bloomberg.
LG said it will continue to sell its current phone inventory and will provide service, support and software updates for customers of existing mobile devices for “a period of time, which will vary by region.”
“Moving forward, LG will continue to leverage its mobile expertise and develop mobility-related technologies such as 6G to help further strengthen competitiveness in other business areas,” the company said in a statement.
“Core technologies developed during the two decades of LG’s mobile business operations will also be retained and applied to existing and future products.”
A 10 per cent stake of the US smartphone market is now up for grabs, according to researcher Counterpoint, as LG’s exit could make way for more competition.