For those who follow the space, LG will be fondly remembered as a smartphone pioneer. For a decade and a half, the company was an important player in the Android category and a driving force behind a series of innovations that have since become standard.
Perhaps the most notable story is that of the LG Prada. Announced a month before the first iPhone, the device helped create the touchscreen format that has come to define virtually all smartphones since then. At the time, the company openly accused Apple of stealing its design, noting: “We believe that the Apple impersonator Prada phone was revealed when the design was presented at the iF Design Award and won the award in September 2006.”
In July of this year, the company will stop selling phones beyond what is left of its existing inventory.
LG continued to push envelopes – albeit with mixed effects. In the end, however, the company simply failed to keep up. This week, the South Korean electronics giant announced that it will move out of the “incredibly competitive” category, choosing to focus on its numerous other departments.
The news comes as no surprise after months of rumors that the company was actively looking for a buyer for the smartphone unit. In the end, it seems, none appeared. In July of this year, the company will stop selling phones beyond what is left of its existing inventory.
The smartphone category is, in fact, competitive. And, frankly, LG’s numbers have dropped quite consistently in the “Other” category of global smartphone market share numbers governed by names like Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi. The other names grouped under the top five were, in most cases, other Chinese manufacturers like Vivo.