14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like LG is ready to give up one of the world's biggest smartphone markets, China. The handset maker's shipments of smartphones in the country accounted for less than 0.1% in 2016, which led to LG's decision to exit the Chinese market.
According to a new report coming from Digitimes, to signal its exit from China, LG will not launch the G6 in the country. The company's flagship smartphone is already available for purchase in South Korea and will soon make its debut in Europe and the United States.
Sources familiar with LG's plans claim the company will focus its marketing efforts on the G6 in other markets like Europe, South Korea, and the United States.
Korean media also notes that LG has sustained heavy losses from its mobile division and low market share in China last year. The G6 won't be the only smartphone customers in China won't be able to get, as LG is expected to stop bringing any new devices to this market, at least for a while.
LG was ranked the third largest smartphone maker in the United States last year with a market share of 15.5%, a 0.6% increase over the same period a year earlier. The same report claims the South Korean company was in the fourth spot in Central and South America with 9.3% market share.
The report doesn't mention any numbers regarding LG's market share in Europe, but since the company has decided to continue to focus its marketing efforts on this particular region, we'd expect the handset maker's share to be on the positive side.
LG G6, the company's new flagship smartphone, has dropped the modular design, a failed experiment that mostly brought heavy financial losses during last year.
The South Korean company has decided to put the Snapdragon 821 processor inside its flagship rather than the new Snapdragon 835 CPU, which will only be available in late April.