Why LG broke away from yearly smartphone tradition at MWC 2018

The highlight of every year of Mobile World Congress (MWC) is often the new phone launches by the different smartphone manufacturers, but LG Electronics has chosen to do things differently this year.

Traditionally, the South Korean electronics giant has launched a new phone model at the MWC almost every year. A number of devices such as the LG G5 and G6 were launched at MWC in the past two years, but this year there won’t be a G7.

This comes after the company revealed in January that the mobile division will stop releasing new smartphones on a specific schedule and instead follow a more on-demand schedule.

Although initially cagey about this change, LG Marketing General Manager Moses Marji eventually confirmed that the company has decided to take a more innovative approach to its phone launches.

“We will unveil new smartphones when it is needed. But we will not launch it just because other rivals do,” Mr. Marji said recently.

 However, this does not mean that fans will not get to experience anything new at the upcoming mobile devices show, it only means that what’s new will look a little different from what they are used to.

LG is this week unveiling the 2018 edition of its popular K8 and K10 mass-tier smartphones at MWC 2018, enhanced with even more premium features rivaling those of premium flagships.

And for its most advanced flagship smartphone, the V30, LG is rolling out a suite of user-friendly AI capabilities that are bound to revolutionize camera technology and audio recognition.

For instance, the new Vision AI in the LG V30 automatically analyses the object you are about to capture and recommends the best shooting mode from among eight modes: portrait, food, pet, landscape, city, flower, sunrise, and sunset.

It seems breaking away from tradition is not a bad thing after all.

It also appears that LG is a pioneer in this move as many of the other mobile competitors are also not launching new smartphone edition.