South Korean manufacturing giant, LG, has suffered consistent losses in the smartphone market for some years. According to recent financial reports, LG’s mobile communications business has suffered losses for 15 consecutive quarters. These setbacks have forced the company to quit the Chinese smartphone market and there are recent reports that it will exit the Philippines smartphone market too. Despite these losses, the company is not giving up on its smartphone business.
Gizchina News of the week
LG Electronics CEO, Qiao Yujin, said that although LG mobile phone business has suffered losses in recent years, LG will not give up the mobile phone business. He said that mobile phones will play an important role in LG’s IoT ecosystem thus the company remains committed to its smartphones. Qiao Jinjin said: “LG’s business portfolio includes cars and home appliances, both of which are related to smartphones, so we have not considered exiting the smartphone business.”
Qiao Jinjin said that LG is in the second year of restructuring the smartphone business and the restructuring activity will continue until next year. This does not mean that the LG mobile phone business employees will be streamlined, LG is working hard to build consumer trust, and is ready to launch a new model. In 2016, the loss was $1.1 billion, in 2017 it lost $644 million, while it lost $440 million in 2018. At the same time, its market share is also falling. According to statistics from StrategyAnalytics, in the third quarter of 2018, LG’s share of the global smartphone market was only 1.9%. What do you think caused the LG smartphone business to lose nearly $2.5 billion for three consecutive years?
