LG Electronics has made diverse new experiments with its smartphones such as the leather-clad G4 and dual-camera phone V10 over the past year. The phones were great but received little acknowledgement from customers.
The company has recently come up with another unprecedented phone in the market -- the world’s first modular smartphone G5. But this time the initial market reaction seems quite different, with orders soaring.
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LG G5 |
According to telecom carriers and retailers, the phone sold more than 15,000 units on Thursday when it went on sale in Korea. The figure is more than triple that of its predecessor G4 a year ago.
The G5 has an accessory slot at the bottom, which allows users to swap in different modules. Currently, two modules are available to upgrade camera and audio functions.
The company is also pushing hard the LG G5 “Friends,” which are companion accessories such as a headphone, virtual reality headset and 360-degree camera that work paired with the phone.
In order to better pitch the features, LG didn’t receive preorders and has carried out large-scale experience events through thousands of retailers and pop-up zones.
“Despite Samsung’s Galaxy S7 launch in early March, many customers seem to have waited for the G5,” said an official from a local telecom company who wished to be unnamed citing a company policy that bans commenting on clients.
‘Young customers especially in their 20s are showing keen interest in the phone’s modularity.”
The G5 comes at an opportune time for LG. While its appliance and car parts units have posted strong sales, the mobile business unit has continued losing money due to sluggish device sales in recent years.
Industry watchers say the company’s turnaround is largely dependent on the phone’s success in the coming months.
“If the phone hits the 3-million mark in sales, its ASP (average selling price) could surge 20 percent,” said Kwon Seong-ryul, a researcher at Dongbu Securities.
He predicted an operating profit of 47 billion won ($41 million) in the second quarter, compared to 42 billion won loss in the previous quarter.
Park Won-jae, a researcher at KDB Daewoo Securities, also forecast a sales upswing, calling production key to maintaining the momentum.
LG advanced the flagship phone launch a month compared to usual, which means it had less time to secure early supplies.
Over the weekend, some customers complained that they couldn’t buy their favorite color models as some colors such as silver and titan were sold out.
LG said earlier it had dispatched some 300 researchers to the G5 manufacturing plant to beef up production.
Starting with the U.S. debut on April 1, the G5 plans to hit overseas markets in the coming weeks such as China and Europe. Some analysts predict the phone could sell more than 10 million units this year, becoming the best-selling G series model.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
