LG’s mobile division flounders in second quarter, but remains strong in North America

The second quarter was expected to be a big quarter for LG, since the company launched its flagship G4 smartphone during the period, but the company managed to ship 14.1 million phones in the second quarter. Not a bad number, by itself, but this represents a decrease from the 15.4 million and 15.5 million phones LG shipped in the first quarter of 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2014, respectively.

Those sales translated to LG making KRW 3.65 trillion, or $3.33 billion, from its phone sales, a very modest 1 percent increase year-on-year. LG’s home appliances and vehicle divisions saw more noticeable revenue increases quarter-over-quarter, with 10 percent and 18 percent increases in sales, respectively. Regardless, the mobile division isn’t holding LG back, since the company as a whole reported a 7.6 percent decrease in revenue year-on-year.

The issue, according to LG, seems to be the lack of demand for premium smartphones, particularly in the company’s home country of South Korea and surrounding regions. Seeing how quarterly shipments decreased by only 3 percent year-on-year, we suspect that LG’s mid-range offerings helped stem the tide. With that being said, LG’s mobile division saw a huge bright spot in North America, where revenue in the region increased by 36 percent year-on-year due to the company’s tablets and mid-range smartphones.

Another bright spot for the company is the record-high 8.1 million LTE-enabled smartphones it sold worldwide. With this in mind, LG said it will split its focus between high-end and mid-range smartphone offerings moving forward.

Of course, LG still has two quarters to show that its remarkable growth in 2014 was not a fluke, and with rumors of an upcoming G4 spin-off, the beefy G4 Pro, being released this October, the company isn’t done making high-end smartphones.