In context: It has been 4 years since LG introduced it was quitting the cellphone enterprise, marking a tragic finish for a model that supplied distinctive alternate options to the slew of Apple and Samsung fashions in the marketplace. LG has continued offering software program updates to clients since then, however that can finish on June 30 this yr.
After experiencing six years of falling gross sales and declining shipments, LG warned in January 2021 that it may exit the cellphone enterprise. The writing was on the wall in March when Germany’s Volkswagen AG and Vietnam’s Vingroup JSC, which had been buying the smartphone arm, backed away after negotiations fell by way of.
The affirmation arrived in April that yr, killing off a model that in 2013 was the world’s third-largest cellphone maker.
Most companies leaving the cellphone enterprise have been fast to finish assist for his or her handsets, however LG pledged as much as three iterations of Android updates for its premium gadgets launched in 2019 or later, together with the LG Velvet and LG Wing.
Whereas that meant the telephones would solely acquired patches and upgrades as much as Android 12 or Android 13, relying on the system, LG has left its replace servers lively for for much longer than its 3-year cutoff date. However Android Authority reviews that they may lastly be shut off on June 30, 2025. As such, the corporate is recommending anybody who nonetheless has an LG cellphone to ensure it is up to date earlier than then.
The LG Bridge PC can be being shut down on the finish of June. The software program is used to switch contacts, photographs, movies and audio information from a cellular system to a PC, and permits customers to again up, restore, or replace software program through USB.
LG was by no means afraid to innovate in a smartphone market the place new fashions usually look equivalent to their predecessors. There was the modular G5, the dual-screen LG G8X, the versatile LG G Flex 2, and the futuristic LG Wing 5G, to call a number of.
The closure of the replace servers will draw a last line below LG’s smartphone enterprise. It will be a tragic second as many individuals had been followers of its handsets, quirky or in any other case – this author liked the LG V30 and used the system for a few years.
