LG will outsource low to mid-range models, but continue designing high-end phones in-house to try turn a profit

LG makes some excellent smartphones, but it has now seen 22 consecutive quarters without making a profit from its mobile division. Unsurprisingly, this has been acting as a drag on LG’s otherwise strong overall performance despite many different attempts to try to turn things around. LG has now announced that its latest turnaround strategy will see the company hand off the design and manufacture of its low-end and mid-range phones to third parties.

This leaves LG designing and making only its high-end and upper mid-range models in house. As a result of the restructure, LG has consolidated its staffing arrangements with some research and production positions abolished and others reorganized. The aim of the initiative is to compete more effectively with the Chinese competition by business costs while continuing to sell rebranded phones under the LG banner so it still addresses all parts of the market.

At this stage, there is no suggestion that LG plans to pull the pin on its exciting Explorer Project smartphones, the first of which is the experimental LG Wing. The second in the series is expected to be the first rollable smartphone from the company, which holds strong potential depending on its pricing. To help keep the pricing down on the Wing, LG fitted it with Qualcomm's mid-range Snapdragon 765G instead of the Snapdragon 865. That said, LG is expected to launch high-end smartphone with Qualcomm's 2021 flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 888.