It’s official, LG will stop making phones this year

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It’s been leading up to this for a while, and now it’s official – LG Electronics is closing its mobile division. The decision was approved by the company’s board of directors on April 5, with the division closing permanently by July 31.

LG’s press release talking about the exit from the highly competitive smartphone sector says it “will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services.” That last point is important, with LG looking to license out things like its smart-TV platform, webOS, to other manufacturers. Other hardware manufacturers like Apple are making bank selling services, and LG is clearly hoping for a slice of that market.

LG will support its current line-up of smartphones for “a period of time which will vary by region.” That includes software updates, so your existing LG devices aren’t going to suddenly stop working. We recommend you start looking for a replacement phone, though, as it’s anyone’s guess how long the company will actually continue supporting any of its devices.

That decision means the fate of the LG rollable phone is just a pipe dream, gone up in smoke unless someone decides to purchase the tech. Assuming of course, that LG will sell off any of its mobile patents, like Motorola did when it sold itself to Google (Google has since sold Motorola to Lenovo).

Maybe the company will take another road, as it’s not exactly hurting for money. Those patents could be reworked into future LG televisions and other hardware.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.