LG G8 ThinQ smartphone sales off to slow start

Visitors try LG G8 ThinQ during the unveiling event in Barcelona on Feb. 24. / Courtesy of LG Electronics

By Jun Ji-hye

LG Electronics' new LG G8 ThinQ smartphone has apparently failed to receive the attention from consumers despite its upgraded features and low price.

This is expected to bring more challenges to the Korean tech company's smartphone unit that has lost money for 15 consecutive quarters.

LG G8 ThinQ was released officially in the domestic market on Friday at 897,600 won ($792).

The price is 1,100 won cheaper than the previous G7 ThinQ, and about 80,000 won cheaper than G7 ThinQ Plus.

Compared to Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S10 featuring 128 gigabyte of memory, LG's new smartphone is about 160,000 won cheaper.

“G8 ThinQ's hardware such as battery and display was considerably upgraded compared to the previous version. Plus, the new smartphone has more cameras,” said an official from LG Electronics.

But the new product has been receiving a lukewarm response from users, industry sources said, noting that the modest number of users participated in the pre-order program, which was carried out until Thursday.

LG G8 ThinQ's failure to attract users was partially attributed to growing popularly of Samsung Galaxy S10, released here on March 8.

In addition, Samsung's recent announcement that it will release the Galaxy S10 5G model April 5 appeared to absorb smartphone users' interest further as the product is set to be the world's first mobile device with the next-generation network capability.

Some users expressed complaints that LG Electronics abolished a reward program when releasing G8 ThinQ.

When launching the previous G7 ThinQ and V40 ThinQ, the company ran the program, in which it offered financial rewards to users who returned their mobile phones used for more than two years.

Users were allowed to utilize the program regardless of the brand of their used mobile phones. In particular, users of LG smartphones could enjoy more benefits, considering used LG phones are not that popular in the second-hand market.

Sources said LG's decision to abolish the reward program resulted in them missing the chance to entice over users of LG smartphones.

Regarding the issue, the LG Electronics official said, “It was assessed that the reward program was beneficial to users of LG phones, not to all. So we abolished the program this time, and instead, focused on reducing the price of the new product so all users can enjoy the benefits.”

LG Electronics is expected to face another difficulty to secure users of 5G smartphones, with Samsung Galaxy S10's 5G model going on sale on April 5.

LG unveiled V50 ThinQ 5G supporting 5G network technology on the eve of the Mobile World Congress Barcelona in February.

But the company official said the date of the release has not been decided.