In context: Almost two months after announcing its exit from the business, LG has reportedly manufactured the company's last-ever phone. The South Korean giant was the third-largest handset maker in 2013, but the division had spent six years losing money, totaling around $4.5 billion, before being consigned to history in April.
According to Asia Business Daily (via Engadget), LG continued manufacturing handsets following the closure announcement as it had to fulfill contracts with telecom companies. The publication writes that the Vietnamese factory where many of the firm's phones were made will be converted into a manufacturing plant creating household appliances.
LG's exit means that the LG V70 ThinQ, LG G10, LG Velvet 2, and LG Rollable will never see the light of day, though there were reports of the company selling a limited number of unreleased Velvet 2 Pro and LG Rollable handsets to employees in South Korea.
The LG Wing
The good news for owners of its recent premium offerings released in 2019 or later, including the LG Velvet and LG Wing, is the promise of up to three iterations of Android updates, while recent non-premium phones such as LG Stylo and K series will be getting two OS updates. The company is also offering four years of after-sales service from the date of manufacture.
It's sad to see LG phones disappear---the LG G6 was once this writer's daily driver. Unlike other firms, it was never afraid to innovate, not always successfully, in an industry filled with companies fearful of the word. There was the modular G5, the dual-screen LG G8X, the flexible LG G Flex 2, and the futuristic LG Wing 5G, to name a few.
Masthead credit: Grzegorz Czapski