We knew it was going to happen. We didn’t believe it, hoping that they would be the underdog and make a comeback but the reality is cruel. LG has now become the first major smartphone brand to withdraw itself from the market due to losses. Everyone knew LG was losing money but they still tried their best to innovate but the competition was fierce.
LG said on Monday in a statement that it will now be winding down its money-losing mobile division. The decision to withdraw means that it will also lose its 10 percent share in North America to Apple and Samsung. LG used to be the innovator, coming up with ideas like Ultra wide cameras, dual screens and it was once the third-largest smartphone manufacturer.
According to LG, the mobile division has logged about six years of losses that total to a sum of $4.5 Billion. Dropping out of this market will now help LG focus on other areas with potential for growth such as Electric Vehicles, smart devices, smart homes, etc.
Samsung shipped about 256 million phones last year and in comparison, LG only shipped 23 million. Making its global share come out to be only about 2 percent. In Latic America, it is still in the top 5 brands so the situation was not unsolvable considering a lot of big brands like Nokia, HTC, and blackberry have also fallen far in recent years. The companies that failed to innovate were left behind by others.
The mobile division will wound down its operation on July 31st. The employees will be moved to other businesses of the company so for the time being it seems most of the employees are not losing their job.