LG reduces phone sale targets, Windows Mobile agreement to blame?

Ask anyone which are the best smartphone manufacturers right now and nine out of ten times you'll hear either HTC or Samsung. But what about LG? The company has been in the cell phone game for as long as Samsung has and their phones have just as reliable hardware as HTC, plus support for their Windows Phones has been phenomenal with tons of free apps and great exclusive features like DLNA sharing. Yet LG are likely the least discussed manufacturer in the Windows Phone world and they aren't exactly water-cooler talk with Android either. One could assume we're just exaggerating and that LG sells many more smartphones that it may seem but recent news suggests the company has owned up to its shortcomings in the volatile market.

The Korean-based manufacturer announced yesterday that their mobile division would significantly reduce their target sales for this year. Just how significant is "significant"? Out of their smartphones alone, they have reduced their outlook from 30 million to 24 million which comes out to a modest 6 million loss. It's a lot worse with their total cell phone sales too, dropping from 150 down to 114 million which means there would be a steep 30 million non-smartphone loss.

Knowing the corporate world and companies' manipulation of stocks, this could very well be a preemptive move to reduce their outlook and then end up outperforming it slightly to make it look like everything is swell. But in reality, it's obvious to everyone that LG has some issues competing in smartphones and some even think it could partially be Microsoft's fault. In 2008, LG inked a strategic partnership deal for Windows Mobile (sound familiar?) which entailed, "continued strategic collaboration in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in the field of converged mobile devices". Unfortunately for them, the announcement was literally 3 days before the Motorola Droid crashed onto the scene and eventually made Android a true contender. Ouch.

Will this reduced figure for smartphone sales affect their Windows Phones as well? We don't know for sure, but it's very likely. LG is still on for Mango and if they bring along more quality goodies like they did with the Quantum and Optimus 7, we're confident they can reach a strong customer base...just spice things up a little will ya?

Via: Engadget
Source: Electronista