LG Electronics was once a well-known brand in the smartphone market. In recent years, it has gradually lost competition with Chinese manufacturers. It withdrew from the mobile phone market last year. After getting rid of its loss-making business, LG’s performance did not decline but increased. In 2021, the South Korean manufacturer’s revenue exceed 70 trillion won ($58.4 billion) for the first time.
A few days ago, LG announced a preliminary report on its 2021 performance. The company’s annual revenue hit 74.72 trillion won which is about $62.3 billion yuan. This is the first time that LG’s annual revenue exceeds the 70 trillion won mark, a 28.7% year-on-year increase. This is more than the expectations of analysts. However, LG’s annual operating profit was only 3.87 trillion won which is about $3.2 billion. This is 1% lower than market expectations.
This latest revenue performance is a clear indication that LG’s smartphone business has been draining the company. The company is now focusing on other markets that have more profitability than smartphones.
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LG struggled to keep up in the smartphone market
South Korean manufacturer, LG, has been struggling in the smartphone market. After a series of consecutive losses in the Chinese market, the company had to exit the extremely competitive smartphone market. At that point, it was only a matter of time before it does the same globally. Last year, LG officially confirmed that it will gradually close its smartphone business.
LG officially completed the full global shutdown of its smartphone business in July last year. However, many of its models are still in the market. These smartphones will still get regular updates. LG stated that it will “provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products, and the time period will vary from region to region”. In addition, LG has further elaborated on its software update plan on the company’s Korean website.
LG fully rolled out Android 11 operating system updates for specific models following its previous announcement. More importantly, it will release the Android 12 update for some devices. However, the company will not be doing much work on this update. It will technically feel like the raw Android 12 from Google.
The company has already introduced Android 11 updates to a few of its devices, including LG Velvet, V60 ThinQ, and G7 One. Other phones that are got this update include LG G8X, G8S, Velvet 4G, Wing, K52, and K42. If the company can actually launch an Android 12 update, it is expected to only land on its flagships that have Android 10 pre-installed at the time of launch. This will include smartphones such as Velvet, V60 ThinQ, and Wing.
