Smartphone Sales Boosts LG's Quarterly Profit

News
By Zak Islam
published

The company faced tough competition from Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S3.

Despite facing intense competition from the likes of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S3 and Apple's iPhone, South Korean electronics firm LG has announced a third quarter profit after shipping a record amount of smartphones.

LG posted a net profit of $138 million for the three months ended in September. The figure represents a jump of 59 percent when compared to the same period last year, when it reported a loss of $366 million.

LG's mobile division in particular has experienced the most growth, with it posting a $19 million profit compared to a $126 million loss in 2011. Cumulatively, LG has managed to ship more than 14 million handsets.

"Today's results show that it doesn't have to be Apple or Samsung to make profits in smartphones", said Hong Sung-ho, an analyst at I'm Investment & Securities. "LG won't be able to earn double digit profit margin in handsets as Apple and Samsung do. Still, LG proved it has the potential to stand out among its second-tier peers of Huawei, ZTE, Motorola etc, with its manufacturing competitiveness."

LG will reportedly unveil Google's next Nexus smartphone on October 29.

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Zak Islam
5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • amdwilliam1985
    "Today's results show that it doesn't have to be Apple or Samsung to make profits in smartphones"

    um... I thought HTC also made profits.
    Motorola and Sony are going through transitions, I'm sure they'll make profits too after they're completed.
    We need more stronger players in this market, more competition means better choice for everyone.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    amdwilliam1985"Today's results show that it doesn't have to be Apple or Samsung to make profits in smartphones"um... I thought HTC also made profits.Motorola and Sony are going through transitions, I'm sure they'll make profits too after they're completed.We need more stronger players in this market, more competition means better choice for everyone.Motorola may be in transition, but Sony just doesn't know what it is doing. Sony has TVs, consoles, computers, audio equipment, and cannot figure out how to get all of these divisions to work together to make a unified product ecosystem. Or, when they do get a unified system, they think they can charge a ton of extra money for it like they did in the '90s with their smart link (wrong name?) technology where you could link your sony devices via a little wire to get your receiver to control your CD player, DVD player, VHS player, radio, and even your Vaio computer. They had the right idea at the time, but for the feature they wanted way too much money. The real trick would have been to have the feature for the same price as things without the feature. People are not generally so picky to have the same brand of all of their electronics, but give it an ecosystem and the whole ecosystem benefits from it.
    Reply
  • bak0n
    Apparently people aren't aware of LG's promises they don't live up to in their phone division. If they did I'd assume most of them would be buying an LG. I sure won't be after being promised 2 OS upgrades and never seeing one of them over 2 years.
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    bak0nApparently people aren't aware of LG's promises they don't live up to in their phone division. If they did I'd assume most of them would be buying an LG. I sure won't be after being promised 2 OS upgrades and never seeing one of them over 2 years.
    But only Motorola does that!

    Never in Android history have companies said a phone would get new Android versions and never get it until Motorola!
    Reply
  • murzar
    I find it hard to believe why LG phones are not popular? Similarly spec'd, LG android phones are comparatively cheaper than Samsung phones. I guess people just don't trust its build quality.
    Reply