The South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation LG is forced to withdraw mobile phone business from the market due to the heavy losses. The once pioneer brand will become the first company to withdraw from the market because of losses.
In a statement, LG said it will close its loss-making mobile phone business worldwide. Withdrawing from the fiercely competitive sector would allow LG to focus on “growth areas” such as AI, electric vehicle components, robotics, connected devices, smart homes, and B2B solutions, and platforms and services, it said in a statement.
The firm said that the decision to shut down the mobile phone business worldwide had been approved by its board of directors. The plausible move followed the company’s statement from January when it explained that it was reviewing its smartphone business direction.
In the U.S., LG maintained the No. 3 spot in the smartphone market for a long time, but its decision to pull out will leave its 10% percent share there. The smartphone division has logged nearly six years of losses totaling roughly $4.5 billion (Rs. 33,010 crores).
The South Korean company says that it will continue to sell handsets until the inventory lasts and will also provide software support for existing users for a certain period of time that would vary by region.
According to reports, the status of LG’s phone business employees will be determined at the local level. There were reports in January that the company is looking to sell its smartphone business. However, in the same month, the company announced that it is planning to launch a rollable phone this year. Finally, the company decided to shut down its phone business globally; it seems all its efforts to keep the business stay afloat failed. Like many other Android smartphone vendors, LG has struggled to turn things around.
LG primarily focused on two segments, midrange, and high-end smartphones; both market segments have become increasingly competitive in the past decade. And this is because of the rise of Chinese phone makers such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei, Vivo, and Oppo that keep launching better value-for-money models every few months.
The company stated, “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.”
