LG officially announced that the company is shutting down its smartphone business worldwide. The company announced formally today as the board of directors approved the decision made. The Korean giant has been struggling for over five years, bearing losses of around $4.5 billion in order to compete with giants like Apple and Samsung.
Once the top 3rd smartphone brand in the US, LG will continue selling the remaining of its inventory. The closure will be complete by July 31 as the board of directors approved the decision. The mid-range smartphone companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are one of the reasons LG started falling down. According to the company’s statement, LG will start focusing on growth areas such as IoT, AI, electric vehicle components, connected devices, robotics, platforms, services, and B2B solutions.
The current users of LG smartphones will get software updates and support according to their region. LG also says that it will collaborate with business partners and suppliers throughout the closure. The company shares the future plans as well saying,
“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.”
LG has tried pushing limits of innovation by introducing concepts like, flexible phones, rollable displays, and phones like V20, with dual display tech. The company even tried going all modular with the unpopular LG G5, which wasn’t a very wise move at that time, even with the dual-screen cases, and high-end audio modules. The company is also struggling with the sales of recent flagship, WING, which comes with an odd dual display.
LG’s goodbye to the mobile business leaves opportunity for companies like Google to make their way up to top 3s.