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LG Electronics hasn’t introduced an entirely new Android flagship at this year’s Mobile World Congress but is still planning to do so “soon,” according to its mobile chief Hwang Jeong-hwan. While speaking on the sidelines of the Barcelona, Spain-based trade show earlier this week, the executive revealed LG is now rethinking some “fundamentals” of its general smartphone strategy and is seeking to experiment with different business models and market approaches without worrying about what its rivals are doing. Mr. Hwang didn’t provide more details on the matter, though his comments were in line with recent reports about the upcoming successor to the 2017 G6 that’s said to be code-named “Judy” and planned for a launch in June.
The company executive reportedly canceled the G7 and ordered its development restarted from scratch several months back. The new addition to the G series also isn’t expected to be advertised as the G7 and should instead be at least partially rebranded, as per previous rumors. The LG V40 or however the V30 successor ends up being called is also expected to have its debut pushed back any may not launch before late 2018 or early 2019. Last year, LG introduced the G6 at MWC but the smartphone didn’t become available for purchase on a global level until mid-2017, having been commercialized after many of its direct rivals already made their way to the stores. The South Korean original equipment manufacturer is now also experimenting with revising its existing offerings for longer, having most recently done so with new color options added to the G6 series and the V30S ThinQ, an improved version of the original V30 Plus that features improved artificial intelligence capabilities and 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB.
LG’s mobile business has been struggling in recent times, having posted ten consecutive quarterly losses as of the end of 2017. The division burned through over a billion dollars during the troubled period despite significant cost-cutting efforts and constantly shifting product strategies, none of which found short-term success. Most other units of the Seoul-based tech giant are doing much better than its mobile business, though LG has no plans of exiting the smartphone market going forward, according to recent statements from senior company officials.