LG Electronics said The Verge that the company’s phone with a resizable screen, the LG Rollable, was not put on hold. “I can firmly deny that any decision on future mobile products has been finalized,” said a spokesman for LG. The denial comes in response to a report from Yonhap News that LG reportedly told parts suppliers that Rollable was put on hold and that they could request a refund for their development efforts.
Denying that a final decision has been made is not exactly the same thing as reassuring everyone that Rollable is yet to come in 2021, but it may reflect the general uncertainty that arises with the design, manufacture and shipping of complicated electronics during a global pandemic. And it could also be that the Yonhap News report is somewhere close to the truth.
LG also firmly denied a report in January that it was planning to exit the smartphone and Korean outlet business TheElec ended up erasing that report, only to see LG turn around later and admit that it was in fact considering leaving smartphones, even though the decision had not yet been finalized.
If LG decides to put Rollable on hold, it could be to change the release dates or reengineer some part of its design. Not every change in the manufacturing schedule necessarily means cancellation. It would probably be a surprise for LG employees if it was canceled: TheElecthe now-deleted story originally suggested that the smartphone business or not, Project I (LG’s code for Rollable) would continue, XDA Developers wrote.
LG has struggled to compete with other smartphone makers like Samsung or Huawei, and its smartphone business has lost approximately $ 4.5 billion over the past five years. But it seems committed to ensuring that the LG Wing is not the last “exclusive” phone design it launches. Rollable’s future is uncertain, but the story is definitely not over yet.