LG Gives Up On China As US Smartphone Sales Rise

Samsung neighbor and rival LG is not releasing its G5 successor, the G6, in the biggest smartphone market in the world, China. The company just announced that its flagship phone will not be reaching the shores of Asia’s sleeping giant at all.

On Tuesday, DigiTimes learned directly from South Korean publication Daum News that LG Electronics it is not releasing the LG G6 in China despite the large number of consumers there. The reason for this is the fact that the electronics company hasn’t been doing well in the China market. Last year, shipments of its smartphones to China only accounted for a disappointing figure of less than 0.1 percent based on Strategy Analytics data.

The poor reception in the China market is mostly due to the fact that the country is embracing more products from local phone makers. Not only that, LG already suffered heavy losses from its handset businesses in the country. With these problems, it won’t be surprising if the company eventually withdraws from shipping anything from its phone business to China.

Compared with the global scene, the smartphone market in China is being dominated by Chinese brands like Oppo, Vivo, Huawei and Xiaomi. Phone Arena says the only exception here is Apple, which has a relatively strong following in the country knowing that its phones have become status symbols to the Chinese.

While LG has clearly given up on China, its sales in the U.S. are noticeably improving. Compared to its performance in 2015 with 14.9 percent market share, the company now has 15.5 percent, making it the third largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. In Central and South America, LG ranks fourth with a 9.3 percent share.

Although LG may be showing signs that it is withdrawing its smartphone business from China, it’s worth noting that its home appliance business continues to do well not only in China, but also worldwide.