LG, a company which was known to be struggling in the mobile industry just a few years back, has posted strong results for the fourth quarter of 2013 today. It has been a grand revival of sorts for the company which has seen great releases last year in the LG G2 and the Google Nexus 5. Incidentally, LG confirms that these exact two devices have contributed massively to the improvements in its mobile revenue over the quarter as well as over the year. The numbers for QoQ increase in revenues are 18% – 3.38 bn USD, while yoy numbers are more encouraging at 29% – 11.85 billion USD. LG has quickly become one of the more interesting Android OEMs in the recent times and the numbers clearly reflect that.
The LG Mobile Communications Company reported a 29 percent increase in annual revenues to KRW 12.97 trillion (USD 11.85 billion) year-on-year and an 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenues to 3.59 trillion (USD 3.38 billion) quarter-on-quarter with help from stronger LTE smartphone sales such as G2 and Nexus 5. Smartphone shipments of 13.2 million units represented an increase of 54 percent from the previous year. The positive impact of improved product mix was offset by higher marketing investments to strengthen LG’s brand equity and intensified price competition.
However, it was not all rosy for LG’s mobile division, as the release clearly states that the profitability has decreased year on year, while it has indeed increased over last quarter. LG blames it on higher costs for marketing and price competition. The total number of phones shipped has reached a tally of 13.2 million this quarter, a marked increase of a whopping 54% YoY and 9% QoQ. The company has been in the Top 5 smartphone vendors list for quite a while now and the results ensure that it will be the same this year too. Interestingly, LG has said that its 3G-only phones have taken a dip in sales, but blames it on increased LTE adoption, which LG attributes to the G2 and the Nexus 5. We think the 3G-only Nexus 4 has contributed for this dip here.
That said, we hope to see more innovative LG devices this year, as the company pushes forward with bendable phones like the G-Flex. Meanwhile, let us know what you think of these results, in the comments section below.