[Courtesy of LG Electronics]
SEOUL -- Consumers are reacting cynically to a limited edition of LG's super-premium smartphone priced at 1.99 million won ($1,783), saying it is the result of armchair argument.
LG Electronics said in a statement Sunday that it would release the second version of LG SIGNATURE EDITION, a premium smartphone for high-end consumers, on August 13. Only 300 units will be available. The first edition released in December last year became a marketing failure mainly because of its high price.
"LG SIGNATURE EDITION will satisfy high-end consumers by providing them with totally new values," an LG official was quoted as saying. The company said the new premium phone has a scratch-resistant zirconium ceramic back, a camera featuring artificial intelligence and a six-inch organic light emitting diode display (OLED).
Other smartphone makers release premium models but they are far better off from their brother models. Chinese phone maker Xiaomi's "Black Shark Gaming Phone" featured higher specifications than other expensive phones and an exclusively designed cooling system. Apple's premium model iPhone X, released in September 2017, has better cameras and displays than its brother iPhone 8.
Many features of LG's new premium phone are not far different from those of V35, released in May. LG promised to differentiate its service by designating call center operators exclusively for its signature phone users along with a high-end headphone.
"LG totally lost it. No one will buy it," Boocom Sniper, a user from South Korea's online IT community Clien, wrote. "It is the result of armchair argument.". Another user Yungyang said: "LG should change their mind if they want to get out of its sales slump. Not with this sort of unattractive device."
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
