LG may shut down its smartphone business since it can’t find a buyer

enaph

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Jun 14, 2011
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The history of LG’s smartphone division has been one of constant failure and tragedy in the last few years. Despite their constant attempts to innovate and shake things up, they have failed to really make a profit off their smartphone business. While they often make headlines and do their best at keeping things fresh with weird concepts like the LG Wing, the reality is that their smartphone division is still constantly losing money, and their efforts to turn that tide around are not working that well. LG was previously reported to be in talks for selling off their smartphone division, but their search for a buyer is reportedly not going very well, and they might be forced to throw the towel and shut down their smartphone business.

This report comes from the Dong-A Ilbo South Korean newspaper (via Bloomberg). Previously, a company’s spokesperson told us that their smartphone business wasn’t going away anytime soon (before a new report surfaced saying exactly the opposite just days later). They even had serious ambitions for 2021, including a smartphone with a rollable display, which even got Bluetooth SIG certification. This smartphone has reportedly been scrapped, and this new report also says that the company is shelving all of its new smartphone releases for the first half of 2021.

LG has been in talks with companies from the likes of Volkswagen and Vietnam’s Vingroup JSC for potentially selling off their money-losing smartphone division, but these talks have, so far, seem to have failed. If they don’t manage to find a buyer, then LG will have to kill off their smartphone division completely.

This would be a huge loss for the Android ecosystem. While LG hasn’t been doing well in the last years in terms of sales, they’ve been a historically major player in the Android ecosystem, putting out legendary smartphones such as the LG G2. They were also the makers behind other iconic phones such as the Nexus 5, the Nexus 5X, and the Google Pixel 2 XL.
 

upnorth

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LG Electronics said on Monday it would close down its loss-making smartphone business.

In January, the South Korean electronics giant said it was looking at all options for the division after almost six years of losses totalling around $4.5bn (£3.3bn). LG had made many innovations including ultra-wide angle cameras, rising to third largest smartphone maker in 2013. But bosses said the mobile phone market had become "incredibly competitive".
 

Ink

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Jan 8, 2011
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The Velvet, Wing, and G- and V- series phones from 2019 or later should be getting three Android updates from their year of release, and “certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series” will get two updates.

For example, the Velvet came out last year with Android 10, and its Android 11 rollout is currently in progress. That means that it should also be getting Android 12 and 13 at some point, assuming Google continues its yearly cadence. LG variously describes this announcement as a “three-year pledge” and a “three-OS-update guarantee.”
 

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