LG used to be one of the biggest smartphone brands in the world. Along with Sony and HTC, they used to rival Samsung at one point both in terms of sales and cutting edge features. But now they have been reduced to a shadow of their former self and the biggest reason for that is none other than LG itself. I mean they were playing catchup to companies like Samsung in terms of offering the latest features while also keeping the prices high. On top of that their marketing budget was basically nonexistent.
All of these resulted in LG losing quite a lot of sales and hence a lot of money. I mean LG hasn't made money selling smartphones for years at this point, their mobile division has not turned a profit since the LG G3 era, which was way back in 2014. Since that time, it has been losing money, and it's been getting worse each year but bless 'em, they just keep trying.
Today we have some data showing that LG's mobile division is getting back on track. LG has experienced positive trends in quarter 2 of this year and the trend continued throughout the third quarter. Their mobile division generated $1.28 billion in revenue in Q3 of this year which is similar to $1.27 billion a year before but the good news is this puts an end to their continuous decline in revenue year over year.
Not just LG, Sony has also showcased some stable sales figures. They sold 600000 smartphones in Q3 of this year which is identical to their shipments in Q3 of last year. I know 600K is a minuscule number in comparison with Samsung's 80 million sales in the same time frame, but the thing is, it marks an end to Sony's continuous decline year over year.
Both Sony and LG are expecting to actually make profits from their mobile division as soon as next year. In fact, Sony has said that they will post their first yearly profit in four years this year.
LG on the other hand said that they somehow are going to use a “wow factor” in future mobile smartphones to help the division turn a profit. We already saw a few of those devices including the LG Wing, which is one of the most unique smartphones we have seen in recent times. It is the first in a series of Explorer Project handsets that try something different. And LG even teased the second Explorer Project device, a smartphone with a slide-out, flexible display that could put its rivals to shame.
Nothing else is known about this innovative phone in terms of specs or price but today we have details about the launch date. LG reportedly is going to launch this handset as early as March 2021. The phone will likely be powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 875 chipset and it remains to be seen how the new LG phone with a rollable screen will be received.
But in any case, LG is entering a highly experimental phase of being a phone maker, in which it tries to woo new customers over with all sorts of unique designs. Get people talking about the brand with these new devices and convince some of them to buy it and at the same time offer good midrange devices to drive those sales and turn the company back into profits again.
With that said, let me know what do you think about this down in the comments.
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