After several rumors, LG has officially confirmed that they will not be focusing on manufacturing new smartphones and will exit the business completely in a few months. This indicates that there will not be any more successors to the LG V60 and the LG Wing.
The decision to put an end to its smartphone business was approved by the board of directors and the liquidation of existing stocks has started. And the process is expected to be completed by July 31st. However, it does seem that the company would keep some of the models available afterward. LG has stated that the new decision would help to focus on categories that have a potential for growth, such as components for electric vehicles, connected devices, robotic technologies, smart home devices, AI, B2B solutions, and more.
The current inventory of LG smartphones that are now there on the market will still be in the sale though and LG did mention that they will continue to offer software updates for a certain period based on region. However, the company did not mention a specific timeline on how long will they provide firmware updates.
While LG was expected to announce a new rollable smartphone codenamed the LG Rainbow, the company has confirmed with the folks at Android Authority that there will not be any release of a new rollable device. This is quite disappointing news since it was back in CES 2021 when LG had teased the making of a new LG Rollable device.
https://youtu.be/umD42DBYKdM
There were even reports that LG was trying to sell the mobile business to Vietnam’s Vingroup JSC and Volkswagon AG from Germany. However, the negotiations didn’t go through which led LG to stop the mobile business entirely. While the company officially retires from the smartphone market, they will still focus on mobile-based technologies such as 6G speeds and the core technologies that have already been developed on the mobile division will be used in future products of other categories.
“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. Core technologies developed during the two decades of LG’s mobile business operations will also be retained and applied to existing and future products,”
With Apple, Samsung, and Huawei taking the lead in the smartphone sector, along with other companies that produce premium-like smartphones for a cheaper price, LG has faced a huge loss year after year. According to Counterpoint Research, LG had only shipped 23 million smartphones last year, as compared to the massive 256 million shipments by Samsung.
Apart from the losses, LG was known for developing interesting smartphone concepts and it’s a darn shame that we would not see any more smartphone design innovations from the company. It should also be noted that Sony is also facing considerable losses for the last few years in the smartphone market even when they actually have great models.
