After 6 consecutive years of losses, LG announced its withdrawal from the smartphone business. This Korean manufacturer has made some very good Android phones over the years, but devices like LG Wing have never been recognized by the market. LG only sold 24.7 million mobile phones last year, which is less than one-tenth that of Samsung, a Korean mobile phone manufacturer.
After continuing a sustained loss of US$4.4 billion in 2020, LG today announced its official withdrawal from the mobile phone business. The brand will continue to sell existing inventory, but will no longer produce mobile phones.
LG said last year that it was open to “all possibilities” in the mobile phone sector, including direct sales. According to the South Korean news media “Yonhap News Agency”, the company had negotiated with Vietnam’s Vingroup and German Volkswagen but failed to find a buyer.
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LG said it will provide after-sales service and software support for its existing product portfolio. In the future, LG will focus on the field of electric vehicles, the Internet of Things, AI, and 6G
LG’s strategic decision to withdraw from the highly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus its resources on growth areas such as electric vehicle parts, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, and business-to-business solutions, platforms, and services.
LG will cooperate with suppliers and business partners during the entire process of the closure of the mobile phone business. The details of employment will be determined locally.
In the future, LG will continue to use its mobile communications expertise to develop 6G and other mobile communications-related technologies to help further strengthen its competitiveness in other business areas. The core technology developed by LG’s mobile phone business for 20 years will also be retained and applied to existing and future products.
The finalization of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed before July 31, but after that, the inventory of some existing models may continue to be sold.
