It's official: LG exits smartphone business

For most of our tech-savvy readers, LG's announcement did not come as a surprise. The writing was on the wall for the Korean company's smartphones division after it was on a loss-making spree for six years. According to a Reuters report, the losses totalled more than $4.5 billion.

• Also Read: LG Wing review: weird, fun, and surprisingly usable

The final straw was the company's inability to strike deal with potential buyers. LG was reportedly in talks with Vingroup, a Vietnamese company that was interested in taking over the mobile division. That, however, did not happen and the talks fell through leaving LG with no option but to exit the business completely.

When LG's mobile phone division will cease to exist on July 31, 2021, it will be the end of a 19-year-old journey that began in 2002 with the launch of its mobile phone - the LG B1200.  

What is interesting is the fact that even today, LG is the third-largest smartphone vendor in the United States - behind Samsung and Apple with a market share of just around 10 per cent. However, LG has been decimated in other countries - especially in Asia where the relentless onslaught of highly competitive Chinese brands was too much to handle for LG. The fact that LG also had a very confusing product strategy did not help its cause either.

• Also Read: Can anyone make sense of LG's baffling smartphone strategy?

In case you happen to be own an LG smartphone and are wondering about future software updates and support, there is an FAQ page that attempts to answer your queries. The content on the FAQ page is slightly different for different markets. Here are the links to the FAQ pages for different countries

• LG (USA)
• LG (UK)
• LG (India)

While you're here, why not also take part in our little poll?

Via: LG Newsroom