LG did come up with some great smartphone ideas recently, but the company’s market in smartphones was not thriving a lot. The flagship phones kept suffering from software and hardware problems. The software part could have been rectified with timely and regular updates, but the company was very slow on that part. The company’s division of smartphones has suffered a loss for the past six years. LG did bring a lot of innovations in the market of smartphones, but if we look at its global shares now, it is just 2 percent.
On Monday, the company announced it would bring down the division of smartphones, which was causing them a major loss. It is the first-ever smartphone brand that has completely withdrawn itself from the market. The company’s decision to pull out will leave a share of 10 percent in North America, where it is the No. 3 brands, after the brands like Apple and Samsung.
LG to make new ventures in smart home appliances and electric vehicle components
LG Withdraws itself from Smartphone IndustryThe smartphone division of the company has totaled a loss of 4.5 billion dollars. Hence it has been forced to take the decision to drop down from this field. This is a good thing in a way because the company can now focus on the components of electric vehicles, smart home devices, and other such connected devices.
There were times when the company had made so many new inventions in this field. In 2013 it had brought the first ultra-wide-angle camera in one of its phones and was declared the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturing company just after Apple and Samsung.
The company’s flagship phones were definitely nice and had their own innovations, but they started facing software and hardware issues after some time of usage. The software issues could have been fixed with timely and regular software updates, but the company was very slow to send in-time updates. This was one of the primary reasons why people started shifting to other brands. The next is that the company did not do much to promote its smartphones compared to its competitors in China. This created less awareness which became another problem.
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The global share of the company, presently, is about 2 percent. During the last year, it had shipped smartphones of a total value of 23 million. If we compare this to Samsung, then Samsung has produced and shipped smartphones that have a value of 256 million.
If we look at Latin America, then the company ranks at No. 5. If we are looking at South America, companies like Samsung and Chinese companies like Vivo, Xiaomi, and Vivo are befitting a lot in the low to mid segments. A few other companies making mobile phones like Nokia, HTC, and Blackberry have also dropped down from their position where they actually were. The only thing differentiating LG from these brands is that they have not taken the decision to disappear from the market yet.
The smartphone division of the company is the smallest out of the other five divisions. It is being expected that by the 31st of July, this smartphone division will totally close down. The employees in this division will be moved to other electronic divisions for South Korea. However, for the other places, the decisions will have to be taken locally. LG has promised that it will be providing certain updates to the existing customers for a limited period of time.
