LG to develop own smartphone chips

Embattled South Korean OEM LG has announced that it’s working on developing its own smartphone chips in a bid to boost its flagging handset business. Although LG is the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer, the company has reported losses for three quarters in a row and is under increasing pressure from rivals HTC and Samsung.

By making its own chips, LG would be joining a very small club in the mobile world: currently, only Apple and Samsung design and build their own chips for their devices. In doing so, they are able to save costs and reduce time to market with new handsets and devices – an advantage that LG is no doubt keen to gain over its rivals.

To date, LG has used chips from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia in its smartphones. With plans for a new smartphone range that includes the Optimus 3D, an Android-based model capable of recording 3D images, the company is increasing its R&D staff complement by 15 per cent. In December last year, the company announced that it would spend 70 per cent of a planned $17bn investment strategy on new technology in a bid to regain lost ground. So far, LG has declined to go into detail regarding the proposed chips.

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