After a stellar second quarter, LG comes back with another impressive earnings report. For Q3 2013, LG reports they shipped 12 million mobile phones, which is nearly on-par from the 12.1 shipped last quarter. They also note $2.78 billion in mobile revenue, up 24% over this time last year.
While mobile makes up a sizeable portion of LG’s revenue stream, it’s not the whole story. As a company, LG made $12.51 billion, and had nearly $200 million operating profit. Like all things LG of late, that’s a huge (27%) uptick from last year. The only downturn for LG came from their Home Entertainment division, which dropped 7% over last year.
Though LG is keeping their head well above water in regard to mobile, they may be setting the stage for future trouble. In the earnings call, LG notes their “profitability and average selling price were affected by increased competition and higher marketing investments.” In a nutshell, they’re saying they are having issues keeping up with the likes of Samsung, which pours enormous amounts of money into marketing, and can keep device cost low through volume.
LG notes they plan to approach this holiday season with a two-pronged attack: the G2 and mid-tier handsets. Their chief rival, Samsung, is bound to have a few tricks up their sleeve for the holiday shopping rush, so just how LG plans to stay relevant to consumers will be interesting to see. They’re definitely not in trouble, but if they plan to have a similarly great Q4 2013, something big might have to happen.
