A few months ago, South Korea-based LG officially shut down its mobile phone business. Now, confirming the rumors (via ZDNet), the company has revealed that it will start selling Apple iPhones as well as other Apple products in its own stores in South Korea.
The selling of Apple’s products at LG Stores in South Korea is expected to being next month as the company’s exit from the smartphone business will be completed by the end of this month. LG currently has around 400 stores across the country.
LG was reportedly facing an issue with the smartphone reseller trade organization. In 2018, Samsung and LG had agreed to only sell their own smartphones at their respective stores in South Korea. Since LG has now stopped manufacturing its own phones, the trade organization has signed a new contract allowing LG to sell phones from other brands.
The company won’t be selling Mac devices or any of Apple’s PC-related products as LG is still making products in this category. Also, there will be no after-sales support, and buyers of Apple devices from the LG Best shops will have to seek customer support elsewhere.
This latest move by LG will increase competition for Samsung which practically had the entire South Korean smartphone market to itself after the exit of LG. In order to get the customers of LG, both Apple and Samsung started offering a new trade-in discount for purchasing their own smartphones.
A report from the market research from Counterpoint claims that Samsung had around 65 percent of the South Korean smartphone market share last year, while Apple held around 20 percent. LG, which is no longer in the business, had a 13 percent market share.
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