LG puts tablets on back burner, says Surface not a factor
updated 07:54 pm EDT, Tue June 19, 2012
LG to focus more on smartphones
LG, the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker, announced today that it will be turning its focus away from tablets and looking to improve its standing in the smartphone market. Responding to inquiries from Bloomberg, spokespersons for the phone maker denied that the decision had anything to do with Microsoft's unveiling of its new Surface tablets yesterday.
A spokesperson for the Seoul-based manufacturer said that LG doesn't see Microsoft's new tablet competing with anything the company is focusing on at the moment. Still, the entry of another major player into a sector where everyone is trying to catch up to the iPad cannot have been encouraging news for LG.
LG has fared poorly in the tablet sector. The company's original Optimus Pad's US sales were low enough that it didn't register in the top five tablets, even excluding Apple's iPad. LG rolled out a refresh of the Optimus pad, the Optimus Pad LTE, earlier this year, but today's announcement would seem to indicate that sales for that device have been lackluster as well.
Moving forward, the company will focus on smaller devices. Earlier this year, LG was showing off the Optimus Vu, a "phablet" in the vein of Samsung's Galaxy Note. The success of the Vu and smaller handhelds will likely determine LG's mobile fortunes for the foreseeable future.
