LG shuts down its smartphone division

Another one bites the dust as LG bows out of the competitive market of smartphones. At the beginning of the year, the South Korean company said they were considering shutting the division after incurring $4.5 billion in losses. The decision came following its board of directors approval and an announcement on shifting the focus as well the resources to more advanced technology. 

LG is known to be an innovator by bringing in ultra-wide-angle cameras and will now be exploring the fields of electric vehicle components, IoT devices, smart homes, robotics and AI. 

Also Read: 5 most iconic LG smartphones 

With LG out of the race, the market is going to be dominated by Apple phones and the latter half of the demographic is going to opt for Samsung. Tech gurus have on numerous occasions pointed out LG’s shortcomings with their hardware and software issues as well as its poor marketing strategies in comparison to the competitors. 

Even with the shortcomings, LG smartphones ranked as the third most popular brand in North America and fairly dominated the domestic South Korean market. 

Over the years LG had held talks to sell away parts of the business but with no conclusive results. 

With respect to numbers, in 2020 LG sold over 28 million phones and has a global market share of about 2%. However, smartphones are the smallest of LG’s five divisions, amounting to up to 7.4% of its revenue.