LG Elec smartphone shipments hit five-year low in Q2

South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. is rapidly losing ground in the global smartphone market increasingly dominated by Chinese names, pushed to a pitiful 3 percent share in worldwide sales in the second quarter.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) on Thursday, LG Electronics shipped a total of 9.5 million smartphones in the quarter ended June, down 29 percent from a year earlier and 17 percent from the previous three quarters. It came in ninth with the five-year low record.

In global mobile phone shipments including feature phones, it finished eleventh with a combined market share of 2 percent. Shipments totaled 10 million units, down 32 percent on year and 17 percent on quarter. Global mobile phone wholesale profits declined 25 percent on year to $1.8 billion, also a five-year low.

Shipments to its main North America market dropped by 26 percent, with Western Europe falling 41 percent and South America 46 percent. The Asia-Pacific region slipped 4 percent on year.

Industry experts said the disappointing results were largely due to the rapid growth of Chinese rivals and tepid response to its latest voice-activated G7 ThinQ premium phone launched in May.

Consumers see little difference in LG’s flagship models, said SA in its latest report. The company’s falling sales are a result of its failure to diversify its portfolio and exploit opportunities in India and China, it added.

For the second quarter, Samsung Electronics maintained its top spot in the global mobile phone market, selling 73 million units to command a 20.9 percent share. But it was the only company in the top five to see a drop in both sales (down by 10.1 percent) and market share (down by 1.7 percentage points).

China’s Huawei beat Apple to come in second with a 15.8 percent share. Apple finished third at 12.1 percent. They were trailed by Xiaomi and Oppo, two other Chinese companies, which claimed a 9.1 percent and 8.6 percent share, respectively.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics both suffered a decline in their mobile phone businesses in the second quarter but promised better results in the second half on improved price competitiveness.

Samsung Electronics saw profits from its mobile phone division fall 29 percent on quarter to 2.67 trillion won due to flagging sales of its latest flagship, the Galaxy S9. In a conference call after the earnings report, it said it would drive sales by releasing the Galaxy Note 9 ahead of schedule at a reasonable price tag.

LG Electronics’ mobile device unit logged a 185.4 billion won ($164.9 million) loss in the second quarter, failing to climb out of the red since the second quarter of last year. It vowed to improve its bottom line in the second half by pushing sales and lowering costs.

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