LG celebrates record phone sales as G3 makes life good
Sales of smartphones and LCD TVs are way up, but air conditioner sales have cooled.
Life's good for LG: the Korean company has sold a record number of smartphones in its best quarter for five years as the LG G3 bites back at rivals.
Announcing its financial results for the three months between July and September, LG identified the G series and L series as big hits. The number of phones shifted by LG rose by over a third in this period, hitting 16.8 million devices, while the company's operating profit hit $450 million -- more than double the figure from the same time last year.
Although LG hasn't unpacked the numbers for individual phones, it seems LG's latest flagship the G3, which went on sale this summer, is a catalyst for these record sales. We summed up our review of the G3 as "finally giving LG the right phone with which to challenge Korean rival Samsung", and it looks like we were spot on. We're less impressed with the watered-down G2 Mini and new LG G3 S , but their bargain price tags will probably keep sales ticking along.
With Samsung expected to announce lacklustre results this week, it looks like LG is making a comeback in the crowded market of Android manufacturers.
LG's total revenue for the third quarter was $14.5 billion. Outside the mobile device division, sales of LG's LCD TV sales were up. Discussing the results, LG said 4K TVs would drive sales in future, and also suggested it would start producing quantum dot TVs next year.
Meanwhile profits were slower in the appliances part of the business, and the air conditioning unit actually made a loss thanks to the weather in Korea.