As LG Electronics announced the end of its mobile business, it is expected that mobile carriers will also try to clear LG Electronics’ smartphone inventory.
According to the industry on the 6th, the three mobile telecommunications companies are reviewing inventory processing plans such as expanding marketing support for LG Electronics smartphones following the end of LG Electronics’ mobile business. As’free phones’ also appeared, stocks are expected to run out quickly.
LG Electronics held a board meeting the day before and decided to end the smartphone business on July 31st. It produces existing products only by the end of May and stops production of terminals afterwards.
Earlier, the rumors of LG Electronics’ withdrawal of mobile business began to circulate, and the three mobile telecommunications companies raised public announcement subsidies from January to February of this year and conducted promotions. Plus, it’s speeding up the last-minute inventory bin.
In the case of the strategic smartphone’Wing’, which was launched in September last year, SKT and LG Uplus raised publicly announced subsidies at the beginning of this year, so that a product with a factory price of 1.1 million won can be purchased at the range of 400,000 to 500,000 won.
Subsidies for other models have also been greatly expanded. Looking at the status of the 5G smartphone disclosure subsidies of the three mobile carriers, the maximum amount of publicly disclosed subsidies for the’V50′ launched in 2019 is 730,000 won, which is close to the shipping price of the handset (75,200 won to 890,800 won). If you include additional subsidies from distribution stores that can pay up to 15% of the maximum publicly available subsidies, you can buy them as a’free phone’, which is virtually zero won, or a so-called’chabi phone’ that adds cash when purchasing.
The publicly disclosed subsidy for’Q92′, which has a terminal shipment price of 49,400 won, is about 420,000 won, and if additional support is included, it can be purchased for 164,000 won.
In the case of’Velvet’, which was introduced last year, it is sold in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 won by the three mobile phone companies, but it was sold as a free phone centering on a budget phone earlier this year. Accordingly, there is a possibility that the price will fall further in the three mobile carriers.
LG smartphone inventory is expected to be exhausted at a rapid pace if additional support is added to the extent that LG smartphone inventory has been processed from the beginning of this year.
An industry insider said, “As LG Electronics has decided to produce products only by the end of next month, it is expected that inventory will run out quickly.”
As LG Electronics is about to stop producing smartphones, there is not much time left to buy LG Electronics smartphones, not used phones, at retail stores.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, LG Electronics’ domestic smartphone market share was 13% as of last year. Samsung Electronics recorded 65% market share and Apple recorded 20% market share.
On the other hand, LG Electronics plans to continue to provide sufficient after-sales service (A/S) so that customers and existing users will not experience inconvenience even after the mobile phone business is terminated.