Today, LG Electronics announced its second quarter financial results and briefly discussed its strategy for Q3 2016. Overall, the company’s operating income throughout Q2 2016 topped 584.6 billion Won ($503.10 million), which represents a nearly 140% increase compared to a year ago. This increase is largely attributed to the company’s Home Appliances, Home Entertainment, and Vehicle Components divisions, but sadly it appears that LG Mobile has registered an operating loss of 153.5 billion Won ($131.10 million). However, LG expects to improve sales figures in the next quarter with the launch of the new V series and by “expanding sales of mass-tier K and X” models. In other words, an LG V10 successor appears to be on its way for a market launch in the third quarter of the year.
Throughout Q2 2016, LG Mobile saw an increase in revenues of 3.33 trillion Won ($2.86 billion), representing an increase of 12% compared to the first quarter of the year. However, revenues have declined compared to a year before, and while overall smartphone shipments have increased by 3% from Q1 2016, the mobile business registered an operating loss of 153.5 billion Won, “reflecting increased marketing expenditures and somewhat slow initial sales” of the LG G5 modular flagship. This isn’t the first time LG mentions the sluggish market performance of the LG G5. The smartphone in question was introduced at Mobile World Congress 2016 in February, and although it presented an interesting concept revolving around modularity, the company already stated that the LG G5 is failing to generate sales. However, the good news is that LG has a second flagship on its way by the end of 2016, and according to the official financial results published earlier today, LG hopes that the LG V10 sequel will improve the performance of its mobile business in the third quarter of the year. No details were revealed in regards to the smartphone’s characteristics.
The original LG V10 was considered one of the more interesting Android smartphones of 2015, and indeed, according to recent data from AnTuTu, the LG V10 managed to gain more popularity than the LG G5 in the first half of 2016 in several regions, including Hong Kong where the LG V10 covered 5.14% of the market, and the company’s homeland, where the LG V10 was outperformed by the LG G3 Pro, but became more popular than the LG G2 and the LG G3. At the moment there’s no word on what the company has in store for the LG V10 sequel, but the original model became fairly popular thanks to its great audio and camera quality, a unique and somewhat industrial design, and the inclusion of a secondary display, just to name a few. It’s also worth noting that the LG V10 was announced and released in Q4 2015, whereas according to the press release, the sequel appears to be on its way for an earlier launch in the third quarter of the year.