While Nokia’s arrival on the Windows Phone scene has undoubtedly given Microsoft’s mobile OS a boost in recent months, there’s some bad news out of Seoul this morning: LG is ditching its commitment to Windows Phone and will focus instead on Android handsets, reports the Korea Herald.
LG made a fairly decent stab at the Windows Phone market with the LG Optimus 7, but despite Windows Phone making some gains and overtaking the Symbian OS in the UK, LG obviously sees its future elsewhere – or, with Google in other words. The Korea Herald is reporting that LG bosses are moving away from Microsoft’s mobile platform and concentrating on producing Android phones.
The announcement comes as Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is due to head to South Korea on May 22nd to meet with device manufacturers and developers at the Seoul Digital Forum. We don’t know if he is planning to meet with LG but if he is then we would imagine a fairly lively conversation will ensue.
Although well regarded by many industry observers and critics, Windows Phone has been flagging with many developers being wary of investing in the OS, which is creating something of a Catch-22 situation. There are few decent apps for the OS which means it is less attractive to consumers – which means there will be fewer decent apps made. Things are improving on that score, but not fast enough for LG, it seems.
As we’ve previously observed, if Samsung was to quit Windows Phone it could paradoxically harm Nokia by reducing the mindshare that the OS can claim. LG dropping out isn’t quite on the same scale, but it certainly won’t help. Microsoft’s lost a Windows Phone partner before – Dell effectively pulled out after the Venue Pro‘s stuttered launch – but not a top tier one like LG. If Nokia, HTC and Samsung start to feel the pinch too, can Microsoft’s mobile OS survive?
