LG plans to alter its flagship release schedule, according to statements made by one of the company’s executives.
“We will unveil new smartphones when it is needed. But we will not launch it just because other rivals do,” said LG Electronics vice-chairman Sung-jin Cho during a CES press conference in response to a question about when the company plans to launch G7. Cho added, “We plan to retain existing models longer by, for instance, unveiling more variant models of the G series or V series. ”
While it’s tempting to read Cho’s comments as an admission that LG plans to scale back its mobile ambitions, it’s more likely he was intimating that the company wants to release new smartphones away from the shadow of Samsung.
In the past, LG has announced new G-series iterations at the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, Spain. From the perspective of a brand like LG, the issue with MWC is that a variety of smartphone manufacturers announce new phones at the event, including Samsung. For the past several years, new Galaxy S-series smartphones have dominated the conversation surrounding MWC. Moving forward, the company likely wants to introduce new devices like the G7 on its own terms.
It’s possible to view the recent news that LG is considering whether to re-brand the G-series through the same lens. LG has sold significantly fewer G-series smartphones than Apple and Samsung have sold iPhone and Galaxy S smartphones, respectively. Giving its next flagship a new name allows the company to step away from past failures, at least temporarily.
Cho’s second comment is similarly open-ended.
Releasing multiple variants of existing in-market smartphones doesn’t preclude the company from also releasing new smartphones at the same time, nor would LG be unique in wanting to keep its older devices on store shelves for longer. Apple, for instance, still sells the almost three-year-old iPhone 6S, and the iPhone SE, which is based on the almost five-year-old iPhone 5S.
In any case, we’ve reached out to LG for clarification. We’ll update this article when we hear back from the company.
Source: Korean Herald
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