LG,s smartphone battle now ready

Life’s not that good for LG’s mobile arm right now, as the company has fallen from its third largest cell phone manufacturer slot, it has been outpaced and outclassed in the smartphone market while also being squeezed in the entry level side. In a meeting at its Seoul headquarters, the company admitted its failings but believes it is now well-positioned to fight its way back to the top.

LG was really hitting its stride a few years ago with its feature phone portfolio, as devices like the Chocolate were well received and generated a lot of revenue. The iPhone then came out and greatly accelerated the adoption of smartphones and like many handset makers, LG struggled to adapt. While it will still produce some feature phones and low-end devices, LG said it knows where it has to focus.

“Smartphones are our lifeblood now,” said Yves YS Saw, VP R&D planning division at LG. “There’s no other way moving forward.”

LG was able to release some smartphones last year which sported very impressive specs but still fell short in some aspects. For example, the Nitro HD had the best 720p screen I’d seen until that point but the software sported some lag and I don’t feel like the customizations to the platform really added that much.

While Saw didn’t disparage the company’s previous products, he said that LG Mobile is firmly in the middle of a reinvention which places its focus on an incredible user experience that’s based on a holistic blend of technological innovation, software optimization and a larger push in branding. This approach may seem simple at its core but actually implementing this at scale for a company as large as LG takes time and is filled with challenges.

Chief among those may be trying to change a company culture.

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