News

LG To Withdraw From Smartphone Market Due To Ongoing Losses

After nearly 6 years of losses, South Korea’s LG Electronics has decided to completely withdraw from the smartphone market and focus on other areas instead.

Published

5 years ago

April 7, 2021

Joanna Melki

lg to withdraw from smartphone market due to ongoing losses

After nearly six years of losses, South Korea’s LG Electronics has decided to withdraw from the smartphone market and focus on other areas instead, including home electronics, connected devices, and smart vehicle components.

The total losses of the LG’s mobile division amount to $4.5 billion even though the brand currently enjoys the third place in the United States, after Apple and Samsung Electronics.

“In the United States, LG has targeted mid-priced — if not ultra-low — models and that means Samsung, which has more mid-priced product lines than Apple, will be better able to attract LG users,” commented Ko Eui-young, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.

For a long time, LG was considered to be one of the most innovative smartphone manufacturers, pioneering ultra-wide-angle cameras, dual-display devices, vein-tracking aerial gestures, and swappable components. Unfortunately, most of its innovations failed to gain any significant traction among consumers.

To make things even worse, some of the more recent flagship models have suffered both software and hardware problems, and professional reviewers were quick to point them out, steering potential buyers toward other brands.

LG Smartphone Market Share

Currently, LG’s global share is only around 2 percent, with 23 million smartphones shipped last year. When compared with Samsung’s 256 million shipped units, the company’s decision to withdraw from the smartphone market suddenly becomes easier to understand.

Also Read: Huawei Wants To Make Long-Range Wireless Charging A Reality

It’s also worth pointing out that successful Chinese brands, such as Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO, have greatly increased buyers’ expectations by offering flagship specifications at mid-range prices.

The good news is that current employees of LG’s mobile division won’t lose their jobs — at least not those who are based in South Korea. Instead, they will be moved to other electronics divisions. Owners of LG smartphones also have nothing to worry about because both service support and software updates will continue to be provided even in the near future.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.