LG’s efforts to maintain its spot as a relevant smartphone manufacturer led to the creation of the unique LG G5 and the “Friends” ecosystem. The LG G5 was announced during MWC 2016 in Barcelona along with a couple of Friend modules, and without a shadow of a doubt, the company’s latest flagship phone is very unusual compared to its rivals. Whether or not this is for its own good remains to be settled once LG publishes its earnings, but regardless, in a recent interview with CNet, LG’s marketing VP Chris Yie revealed the company “cannot follow” what the likes of Apple and Samsung are doing and it has “to be different”.
LG’s marketing vice president, Chris Yie, spoke about the LG G5 and Friends in a recent interview with CNet and revealed a number of interesting perspectives regarding the company’s plans surrounding its latest flagship and accompanying modules. Interestingly enough, Chris Yie wanted to emphasize the fact that LG follows its own path and does not want to follow in the footsteps of its rivals. “We have to speak up in the marketplace that we are different than Apple and Samsung,” said the VP, adding that although LG is not even among the top-three smartphone makers as far as earnings are concerned, “we are in the top three” as far as product quality goes. Chris Yie also added that LG “cannot follow what they’re [Apple and Samsung] are doing; we have to be different”. Evidently, this desire for standing out led to the creation of the Friends ecosystem, which may or may not pay off. “Nobody can be confident that all nine Friends will be successful” added Chris Yie; however, the VP also revealed that the LG Hi-Fi Plus module created in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen is already proving to be profitable.
It’s quite obvious that the LG G5 is surrounded by noteworthy rivals, and according to LG’s VP, the market reaction so far has been more positive than expected. However, the market reaction doesn’t necessarily translate accurately into sales figures, and apparently it’s too early to tell whether or not the Friends ecosystem will have a considerable impact on the LG G5’s market performance. Either way, LG seems to have put a lot of faith in the “Friends” concept, and while some modules might prove to be unsuccessful, others might catch on. In fact, LG appears to have plans for certain modules even if they prove unsuccessful. “Whether it’s a success or not, [LG 360] VR is one of the very important devices we should keep in our ecosystem”, said Chris Yie, so while LG might not want to follow Samsung, the company won’t allow the Samsung Gear VR to reign easily over the mobile virtual reality market either.