South Korean tech company LG has revealed that it won’t be releasing a flexible screen phone this year, or another Nexus device, but it will be building an Android tablet.
According to two articles published on Dutch website All About Phones and first picked up by English-launguage tech site Engadget, Kim Wong, the VP of LG’s European mobile arm, claimed during press interviews in Korea that the technology that supports flexible screens is “not mature enough yet” to support wide-scale production -- despite LG's issuing a statement earlier this year saying it would launch a flexible display phone before the end of the year -- and that despite the success it has experienced with the Nexus 4 handset, it will not be partnering with Google again to create another pure Android smartphone.
The partnership drew attention to LG’s other products and gave the company a profile boost in the Android community but the company feels that it has re-established itself and doesn’t need to do it again. This will disappoint many Android purists who have fallen in love with the LG-manufactured Nexus 4.
On the subject of copying Samsung and launching a simple Android version of its flagship phone to satisfy the same market, Kim Wong said that there was no value in such a proposition as the company is focused on differentiating its handsets through unique features rather than specifications. Launching a pure Android phone would mean removing all of these features.
{{/usCountry}}On the subject of copying Samsung and launching a simple Android version of its flagship phone to satisfy the same market, Kim Wong said that there was no value in such a proposition as the company is focused on differentiating its handsets through unique features rather than specifications. Launching a pure Android phone would mean removing all of these features.
{{/usCountry}}However, there was also good news in the interview. LG is committed to launching a Firefox OS phone this year. Wong described the current two-horse race in the smartphone market between Apple and Android as an “unhealthy duopoly.” He also confirmed rumors that LG is set to re-enter the tablet market, though Wong would not be drawn on possible screen size or hardware specifications.