One of the most innovating smart phone company LG will no longer make smart phones and completely shutting down their smart phone business.
Below announcement comes from their South Korean headquarters,
LG Electronics LG TO CLOSE MOBILE PHONE BUSINESS WORLDWIDE
Source -> https://www.lgcorp.com/media/release/23218
Stepping Away from Phone Manufacturing and Sales Enables Company to Focus on Growth Sectors Including EVs, IoT and B2B Solutions
SEOUL, April 5, 2021 — LG Electronics Inc. (LG) announced that it is closing its mobile business unit. The decision was approved by its board of directors earlier today.
LG’s strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services.
Current LG phone inventory will continue to be available for sale. LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region. LG will work collaboratively with suppliers and business partners throughout the closure of the mobile phone business. Details related to employment will be determined at the local level.
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.
The wind down of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31 although inventory of some existing models may still be available after that.
From purely business stand point, its a no brainer, as LG is making huge loss since last 5 years. Although they are at forefront of innovations, many industry first technologies or trend came from their products, but extremely poor marketing and lack of leadership vision took them down.
However, just look at what Microsoft and Nokia pulling out from Windows Phone commitment did to the market. Completely closed the alternative of Windows Phone OS and same with BlackBerry as it left the market in duopoly of Android and iOS.
Pulling out is really not the answer for a multi-national company like LG, staying in the game with some niche higher end segment should have been the way forward. Sony is doing that. Its an excellent option to stay afloat, keep the brand value till you find a good management team to turn it around.
Very sad day for technology enthusiasts as Chinese brands are now moving into a complete monopoly of the android based smart phone market.
