Every year there are movers and shakers in the mobile world, and some are more surprising than others. Some years you have a huge breakthrough innovation that drives sales, and other years you might just have quality products that keep people coming back to newer and better models. This year was a mix of both, giving us bigger and better products from vendors like Samsung, HTC and LG, while innovating on fronts like flexible displays like the LG G Flex. LG has given us quite a few blockbuster devices this year in addition to the G Flex; the LG G2 and the Nexus 5. Fortunately for Google the Nexus 5 seems to be selling quite well, but for LG it seems like their actual flagship, the LG G2, isn’t doing as well as they had hoped. LG was projecting sales of up to 10 million units globally by the end of 2013, and here we are and those numbers have only reached 3 million total. This comes amidst rumors just 2 days ago that LG had only sold 2 million G2’s, which was accurate but only accounted for G2’s sold in Q4 2013 rather than since the phone launched back in September, which is still Q3. That means that LG sold 1 million units in Q3, followed by another 2 million in Q4 2013, totaling to 3 million G2’s worldwide.
While that number seems pretty decent, it pales in comparison to that of global powerhouse and South Korean neighbor Samsung, who has gone on to sell tens of millions of Galaxy S4’s and Galaxy Note 3’s, not counting the other dozens of models they produce. LG also appears to be losing money despite selling over 13 million just this past quarter, and it’s mostly to blame on the marketing campaign for the G2. This is rather interesting because LG’s market share went up from 4.1% to 4.8% worldwide year-over-year, and LG sold roughly 1.1 million more phones in Q4 2013 than it did in Q3 2013.
Marketing is incredibly important, and if this can be the way LG gets its foot in the door of the premium market mindshare, the losses sustained by the company could be worth it if the G2’s sales pick up, or even if the G3 is a really big hit. Intern projections for G2 sales in Q4 2013 were 3 million, and that mark has unfortunately been missed by a fair amount. Still if LG continues to support the G2 with things like the Android 4.4 KitKat update that rolled out on Christmas Day in South Korea, people will definitely start thinking more highly of buying an LG phone in the future. After all what’s not to love about the G2? Personally it’s my favorite Android phone of 2013 even though I own a Galaxy Note 3. If LG can make a proper Note competitor I’ll jump ship, what about you? What’s stopping you from buying an LG phone? Let us know!