LG has announced it will stop making phones. Once one of the top players in the smartphone market, the firm will bow out of its mobile operations globally in order to focus on other “growth areas”. 

It lists such areas as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, and “platforms and services”.

In 2013, LG was rated as the third biggest maker of smartphones in the world, but, according to analysts IDC, it currently stands at 11th. Its smartphone business has been loss making for years, and struggling to keep up with the popularity of Apple and Samsung handsets.

Worried that your shiny LG phone will soon be rendered an expensive brick? LG has said it will maintain service support and software updates for its phones “for a period of time”. Exactly how long is anyone’s guess. This will also vary by region. According to a document spotted by XDA Developers, this support will include Android 12 updates for certain smartphones. Again, this will vary by region.

Many will mourn LG’s exit from the smartphone market. Its phones may have been niche and quirky, but they were usually a bit different from the competition. Recently, the firm had pursued a strategy of eye-catching folding phones like the LG Wing. Our favourite? The LG Chocolate from 2006.

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