It had been rumored on occasion and, finally, it is official. LG, one of the oldest mobile manufacturers, closes its smartphone division worldwide. The decision, they state from the company, has been approved today by its board of directors and will become effective on July 31.
With this move, LG plans focus your resources on other aspects and areas of growth, such as components of electric vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence, among others. And what about users who already have an LG mobile? In the words of the Korean company:
“LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time that will vary by region.”
As Xataka has been able to confirm, upgrade plans do not change after closure. Each mobile has its cycle of updates and both the old and the new will continue to be updated as before. In other words, the closure of the division, in principle, should not affect software support.
In the same way, LG has confirmed to Engadget that after-sales service and spare parts will remain. In other words, if a user now buys an LG Velvet and within a year needs to change the screen because it has broken, it will be possible to do so officially.
The goodbye of an industry classic
LG has been launching mobile phones since 2002, but it was not until 2009 that the company launched its first smartphone, the LG Eve or LG InTouch Max, which ran Android 1.5. However, the era of the smartphone has not been too good for the company, which although it has had sustained income over time, has seen how smartphone sales have not finished taking off.
LG has launched the most successful devices, such as the LG G2 and LG G3, but also great fiascoes at the sales level such as the LG G4 and LG G5, especially the latter, which bet on a modular design. Since then, LG has not finished finding the key and in its last measures decided to bet on double screens and, even more extravagant, on rotating screens (see LG Wing).
In any case, LG mobiles have not managed to compete in a market as competitive as that of smartphones. As of today, LG’s market share of approximately 1.7%, according to StatCounter data, and its mobile division has been in losses for six years. Perhaps the saying that a withdrawal on time is not a defeat is true.
LG Velvet. Regarding the current stock of mobile phones, LG phone inventory will remain available for sale once it is completed on July 31st. Recall that the company has promised to offer updates for an undetermined period of time, but what will depend on the region. Details related to employment will be determined locally. As explained by LG:
“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 mobile business operations of LG will also be retained and applied to existing and future products. “
And the roller?
LG has confirmed to Engadget that the LG Rollable will not be launched. No more models will be manufactured and therefore the LG Rollable will remain in what we have seen so far: a concept mobile shown briefly in video during CES 2021. It was to be LG’s third major launch, after LG Velvet and the LG Wing, but finally there will be no roller from LG.
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