LG’s smartphone division continues to struggle

KOREAN ELECTRONICS FIRM LG has posted its second quarter financial results, which show that its smartphone division continues to struggle.

Although the company did well overall thanks to its home entertainment and appliance businesses, LG revealed that sales of its mobile devices continue to fall as it struggles to compete against HTC and Samsung.

LG's handset business fell 28.5 per cent year on year and 6.8 per cent from the prior quarter. This resulted in the firm posting an operating loss of $51m, compared to $48m in the second quarter last year, although the company is attributing this loss to marketing expenses for devices such as the quad-core Optimus 4X HD.

LG expects things to get better for the company's handset off-shoot in the third quarter, thanks to its incoming LTE models.

"Overall smartphone demand is expected to increase, especially for LTE phones, and competition to intensify with competitors launching premium flagship models," LG said.

Overall, the firm's operating profit more than doubled to $304.5m, thanks to the success of LG's home entertainment, appliance and air conditioning businesses. Each sector posted a reasonable profit, up 2.8 per cent, 13.4 per cent, and 21 per cent from the prior quarter, respectively. µ