On Wednesday, an LG spokesperson confirmed, LG Electronics will start selling Apple products like iPhones at its South Korean stores.
Initially, the South Korean electronics maker faced some conflicts with local phone distributors concerning LG’s plan. The local phone distributors deemed LG’s plan to be a violation of an agreement that barred anti-competitive practices from LG and Samsung.
A couple of years ago in 2018, the two South Korean tech companies (LG and Samsung) agreed to just sell their own respective phone brands at their own stores so as to avoid competing with smaller phone distributors.
However, the association representing the smaller distributors stated that it has signed a renewed contract with LG that now permits the South Korean tech giant to sell phones from other brands.
LG is anticipated to begin selling iPhones at some of its stores starting from August. In addition to this, the company will likely sell other Apple products such as Apple Watch, among other gadgets.
At present, LG has about 400 stores across South Korea. These stores used to sell LG smartphones till the smartphone company announced its exit from the smartphone industry earlier this year. The exit formalities are expected to be accomplished by this month-end.
This news came as a boon for Apple while creating a challenge for Samsung particularly since the pair have been quite aggressively promoting their smartphones in South Korea to fill the space vacated by LG’s exit.
In May Apple and Samsung started offering programs to exchange LG smartphones with Samsung Galaxy Phone or Apple iPhone. The amount provided by the two companies for the exchange offer was 150,000 won, or approximately $135
As per market research firm ‘Counterpoint’, Samsung held a 65% market share in South Korea’s smartphones market in 2020, while Apple possessed 20% market share, and LG controlled 13%.
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