LG bounces back with massively increased smartphone sales

LG has steadily been on the rise, with the LG G line and the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 surely helping a lot, but it seems that handing the Nexus reigns over to Motorola hasn't hurt it as the number of smartphones it shipped in 2014 was far greater than 2013.

59.1 million smartphones were shipped in all during 2014, up 24 percent from 2013. You could perhaps explain that away with the Nexus 5 and LG G2 still being big sellers into early 2014, as they launched towards the end of 2013.

But even the fourth quarter revenue of 2014 was up from the previous year, with a lot of help from the US where handset shipments increased 78% from the same period the previous year, likely due to demand for the LG G3.

Upping the revenue

All of which helped LG Mobile Communications to a total annual revenue of $14.26 billion, up 16% from 2013 according to its financial results statement.

Surprisingly LG is still making good money selling non-smartphones too, as the company also sold 19.1 million feature phones last year, though it points to its smartphone sales as the main factor in its improved profitability.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2015 LG expects greater competition globally and to combat that the company will concentrate on improving its brand power, operating more efficiently and focusing on key markets.

The company didn't specify which regions those would be, but with such strong US sales it would make sense for that to be one of them, in which case we might be looking at a focus on high end handsets rather than entry level ones.

Certainly if LG has started the year as it means to go on then that looks to be the case, given that the powerful LG G Flex 2 has already been announced and the flagship LG G4 is expected within months. Launching a small number of well received handsets could also help it strengthen its brand power.

• LG will soon face some strong competition from the Samsung Galaxy S6.