LG Considering Exit From Smartphone Business, Halts LCD Production for iPhone

LG is considering exiting the smartphone business entirely amid declining shipments and accrued losses of $4.5 billion over the past five years (via The Korea Herald).

lg wing

LG CEO Kwon Bong-Seok cautioned staff earlier today that the company is re-evaluating its presence in the smartphone industry:

Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice. The company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal and downsizing of the smartphone business.

He added that regardless of any change, the company will retain its current employees from the smartphone division and reassign them elsewhere.

LG has seen rapidly declining smartphone shipments in recent years, and the company is now believed to hold a market share of just two percent. LG has posted major financial shortfalls in its smartphone segment for 23 consecutive quarters, reaching a total loss of $4.5 billion.

When taking office as CEO in January 2020, Kwon pledged to turn the company's smartphone business around. The CEO's latest comments therefore appear to be an admission of failure to make the segment profitable.

At the same time, LG is reportedly ending its production of LCD displays for the iPhone, according to The Elec. LG Display had previously attempted to supply LCDs for the second-generation iPhone SE, but failed to meet Apple's requirements, leading to Japan Display and Sharp being selected as suppliers instead. LG's factory that previously made the components will be repurposed to manufacture automobile display panels.

Earlier this month, LG unveiled one of the world's first rollable smartphones at CES, as the company has endeavored to explore unusual designs to lure in customers. The future of this device, and other LG smartphones such as the LG Velvet and LG Wing, are now highly uncertain.

Tags: LG, LG Display

Popular Stories

iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Next Week With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

What to Expect From the 'Apple Launch' Next Week

Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week. Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
apple launch feb 2025

Tim Cook Teases an 'Apple Launch' Next Wednesday

Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag. The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle. Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro With All-New Camera Bar Design Allegedly Revealed

Thursday February 13, 2025 5:49 pm PST by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro will feature three rear cameras arranged in a familiar triangular layout, but the cameras will be housed in an all-new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, according to YouTube channel Front Page Tech. iPhone 17 Pro camera design render created by Asher for Front Page Tech In a video uploaded today, Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser said the camera ...
iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

'New' iPhone SE Product Listing Appears on French Website

Wednesday February 12, 2025 6:49 am PST by
As the wait continues for Apple's long-rumored, fourth-generation iPhone SE, French electronics retailer Boulanger has prematurely published a product listing for a "new" model of the iPhone SE. The placeholder page says the device is "coming soon," but it offers no further information, and the price shown is obviously not real. The listing was spotted by a reader of the French technology...
M4 Mac mini Apple Video

Apple's Refurbished Mac Mini Pricing Has a Problem

Thursday February 13, 2025 6:20 am PST by
Apple this week began selling refurbished Mac mini models with the M4 chip for the first time, but this has led to a pricing conundrum. In the United States, Apple is offering a refurbished Mac mini with the base M4 chip, 256GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet for $509, down from $599 new. This is the standard 15% discount that Apple offers on refurbished Macs. The issue is...
iPhone 16 Apple Store

iPhone 17 in New Sizes This Year: What to Know

Thursday February 13, 2025 2:45 am PST by
Last year, Apple tweaked iPhone 16 Pro screen sizes to make them bigger than 2023's iPhone 15 Pro models, and this year we are also expecting a change in the size of the displays in the iPhone 17 lineup. Here's what we know. Standard iPhone 17 Apple could introduce a new display size for the standard iPhone 17 model in 2025. The iPhone 17 could measure in at 6.3 inches, up from 6.1 inches,...
iphone air concept weis

iPhone 17 Air Could Look Like This in Real Life

Friday February 14, 2025 3:41 am PST by
There have been several alleged leaked details of the iPhone 17 Air, Apple's rumored new slim iPhone, but images have been limited to grainy shots taken in component factories. However, this hyper-realistic concept created by WEIS Studio gives us the best idea yet of what Apple's thin device might actually look like. The concept design is inspired by recent leaks indicating that the device...

Top Rated Comments

syklee26 Avatar
53 months ago
LG phones are not far behind from Samsung's in terms of quality. The problem has always been the sheer incompetence of LG marketing team.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
53 months ago
LG makes a solid device, that’s not the problem why they’re departing. They just can’t establish themselves in competition against Apple and Samsung, being those are predominant. Plus, they barely have any marketing from a consumer standpoint, which they only see what’s in front of them, which has been Apple and Samsung through billboards, commercials and carriers. So in someways, they’ve not been aggressive enough and put themselves in this situation.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apparatchik Avatar
53 months ago
There’s this faux perception on this forum that if you do a good, best-in-class, outstanding, revolutionary or otherwise killer product you automatically will be successful as a business. Things are much more complex than that thou.

Even if you sell massive amounts of a product and gain sizable market share, you can still be bleeding money and not be viable.

This is not about LG not innovating, not doing great phones and quality builds, I would say it has nothing to do with sells being low even, or not marketing properly.

The premium bracket of smartphones is cornered with Apple taking in 80-90% of the profits of the whole worldwide smartphone business and the rest 20-10% left to scramble by a myriad of manufacturers on all price brackets, from $50-80 USD borderline dumb android phones all the way up to $2K foldables.

Think about this for a second. Then, include all the emerging value-oriented Chinese manufaturers into the equation and you’ll see how even Samsung might be in trouble going forward.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/03/02/apple-continues-to-dominate-the-smartphone-profit-pool/
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleTO Avatar
53 months ago
I can’t say I’m really surprised. How often do you see LG phones out in the wild?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Spock Avatar
53 months ago
Apple should buy them and start an Android line. Play both sides to sell services. ;)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
53 months ago

I have a coworker who only gets LG phones. They always have problems.
Which model(s)? What kind of problems? There’s been multiple threads on this forum where members have had excellent experiences with LG over the years. That’s one person you’re referencing out of how many own LG phones.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)