The LG G5 featured a snap-on construction that let you attach different modules to the bottom of the phone. It flopped.
LG is backing away from what made its previous top-of-the-line phone unique.
The company last year launched the G5, which ventured off the beaten path of phone design: Owners could swap out its bottom “chin” for other parts that added a camera grip or a souped-up speaker. In a sea of similar-looking phones , LG hoped that its unusual approach would turn heads.
It didn’t.
“It was a meaningful test for us,” said LG Chief Technology Officer Skott Ahn in an interview Wednesday. “Of course, we paid a lot. ”
Lessons learned, the company will move away from the modular approach for the upcoming G6, which will likely be a more conventional phone.
That shift marks a turnaround effort for LG as it attempts to win back mobile customers. The company, which sells everything from refrigerators to televisions , had made headway with a portfolio of affordable phones and its G line of flagship phones, but the G5 represented a big misstep.
“We have to follow customer acceptance,” Ahn said, noting that LG’s carrier partners also nixed the modular idea.
