Although it consistently launches some of the best smartphones in the industry, it looks like LG's mobile division is having problems with improving shipment figures and maintaining profitability. Earlier today, the company posted its Q4 earnings report, revealing the full numbers and also sharing some insight on how it plans to tackle these problems looking forward.
During the fourth quarter of the last year, LG was able to ship 15.3 million smartphones, a 2% improvement compared to the previous quarter, but a 2% decline compared to Q4 2014. Throughout 2015, LG shipped 59.7 million smartphones, 0.5 million more than the year before. Despite this minor improvement, however, the company has fallen just shy of breaking even in 2015 as far as its profits are concerned. In 2014, the company recorded a small, but existing profit.
As far as the US smartphone market is concerned, LG recorded a 13% QoQ improvement in terms of shipped units during Q4 2015, a feat that's likely to be attributed to the moderate commercial success of the LG V10.
Acknowledging that these numbers could be much improved, LG says that it plans to introduce two new flagship smartphones in 2016. One of these phones will be the upcoming LG G5, a handset that's said to be unveiled late next month at MWC 2016 in Barcelona.
Rumors and leaks claim that the LG G5 come with premium features such as metallic design, a dual camera on the back, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. The current-gen LG G4 features a plastic body and a sub-premium Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset.
As far as LG's second flagship smartphone for the year goes, we're left completely in the dark for the time being. Previous rumors argued that the manufacturer plans to eventually launch a successor to the LG V10 later in the year, but we don't have any conclusive evidence to back this notion up.
Before we leave you to read LG's full financial report for Q4 2015, we'd like to mention that other big players in the smartphone industry are accustomed to the notion of launching two flagships per year. Samsung, which is LG's crosstown (and much more successful) rival has two flagship series, the Galaxy S and the Galaxy Note while Sony has made a habit out of launching two Sony Xperia Z handsets per year.
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