On April 5, LG Electronics officially announced its retraction from the smartphone market. LG was the first major smartphone brand to completely withdraw from the market. Its choice to pull out will leave its 10% share in North America, where it is the number 3 brand, to be gobbled up by smartphone titans Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
The smartphone division of the company has logged almost six years of losses totalling some $4.5 billion, and exiting the furiously serious area would permit LG to zero in on development regions like electric vehicle segments, connected devices, and smart homes, it said in a statement.
While the decision was announced back in April, the company needed some time to slow down and eventually stop its operations. According to reports coming out of Korea today is the last day of production for LG phones and tablets.
The company has stated that it will continue to support its existing devices for some time to come. Premium models will get three years of software support. A few models (including Q-series smartphones) will get Android 12, the most recent premium models are expected to go up to Android 13. Customers will be able to get after-deal services for 4 years from the date of manufacture of the device.
LG Electronics’ production line in Vietnam where most LG smartphones were being manufactured, will switch over to home appliances. LG had effectively changed a portion of its production capacity there to appliances as an approach to keep smartphone assembly workers employed. The remaining employees from the smartphone lines will be reassigned before the finish of July.
The company’s decision to quit the smartphone market is sensible as LG Electronics is on target to turn into the biggest manufacturer of home appliances with record-high deals of $6.3 billion in Q2. LG beat fundamental opponent Whirlpool in Q1, presently in Q2 and analysts expect it will stay on top for the remainder of the year.
