Report: LG G7 development team ordered to start over from scratch

The future of LG’s mobile division is more uncertain than ever coming out of CES 2018. After ten back-to-back quarterly losses – expected to rise to eleven later this month – and hundreds of millions of dollars lost, LG took to the stage in Las Vegas and finally admitted that a new approach is sorely needed.

The South Korean electronics giant confirmed that it would move away from a traditional annual release strategy, instead retaining existing models over a longer lifespan with incremental variants to its G- and V-series. At the time, we wondered what that could mean for the fate of the LG G7.

Well, according to a stunning new report (via The Investor), vice chairman and CEO of LG Electronics, Jo Seong-jin, has effectively canned the G6 successor and ordered a complete rethink of the upcoming flagship.

The report, based on claims by an anonymous company insider, notes that the “revision” will push back the device’s launch until at least April.

It also states that the order to “review the new product from scratch” was “sent down to the working-level officials” immediately after CES concluded.

The drastic action means it’s now all-but-certain that we won’t see a flagship LG smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2018. For the past two years, LG has taken advantage of the show’s global reach to launch its G-series devices.

With Samsung’s similarly-timed Galaxy S announcements overshadowing its last two flagships, the G5 and G6, LG’s move seems smart enough. If it wants to push forward with the reported rebrand of its G-series, steering clear of Samsung’s blockbuster phones is absolutely a wise move.

Another reason suggested for the delay, however, indicates that LG’s troubles go further than worries about the opposition. “The internal speculation is that the company hasn’t been able to find a strong selling point for the G7 smartphone,” said the quoted official.

Mooted ‘LG G7’ features like slimmer bezels and a dual front-facing camera (complete with an iris scanner) have been rumored for a while, but it appears that LG’s next phone is suffering something of an identity crisis. It’ll be interesting to see what killer app the company eventually settles on.

As for when we might hear anything official about LG’s next flagship, the report states that “a possible launch date will be released around the Lunar New Year holiday”, which runs from February 15th-21st – just before the start of MWC 2018.

What do you think of LG’s bold move? Are you tempted to wait and see what LG is up to, or do you think it’ll be too little too late? Let us know in the comments.