LG’s New Tablet Strategy: Quit While It’s Behind

LG Electronics says it’s not too worried about Microsoft’s new foray into tablets. But, then, it’s not all that concerned with the tablet market at this point, anyway.

These days, LG is focused largely on its smartphone portfolio, and it’s not expending very much effort on tablets — nor does it plan to, says company spokesman Ken Hong.

“We decided early this year to focus exclusively on building up our smartphone portfolio, which includes the category of large five-inch display and over devices, such as Optimus Vu, which we feel addresses many of the content consumption issues with traditional mobile phones,” Hong told AllThingsD. “Down the road, we’ll look at tablets again, but for now, our priority is on more ‘pocketable’ smartphones.”

And at this point that’s probably a wise move.

LG isn’t exactly a big player in the tablet market. It’s dwarfed by Android tablet maker Samsung, which is itself struggling for traction in a market in which Apple’s iPad holds a 68 percent share, according to IDC. Better for LG to redouble its efforts in the smartphone market, where it actually has a reasonable chance of market share gains, than to struggle in an Apple-dominated market that’s dashed the hopes of more than one consumer electronics manufacturer already.

And as for Microsoft taking hardware development into its own hands with Surface? How’s that going over at LG? Well, since the company is taking a break from tablets, it’s really not that big a deal. Said Hong, “Microsoft’s announcement doesn’t change anything here at LG.”