LG denied an opportunity to be the first Android phone maker

LG’s cell phones are doing okay, kind of. The company’s mobile division is narrowing down its loss, but it could have been reaping the benefits of Android like HTC if it wasn’t for a strategic mistake the company allegedly make. You guessed it right – LG was to be the first Android phone maker, but backtracked on the deal, forcing Google to work with HTC, according to a report by the WSJ.

From there on, the Taiwanese phone maker has been enjoying galloping growth. LG and Google were negotiating a deal in early 2007, but in the middle of the year LG decided to call it quits.

What could’ve been the reason? We could only guess, but at the time LG was getting its feet wet in the smartphone race with handsets such as the LG Prada, coming out at roughly around the same time as the Apple iPhone. It could have been hopes for its touchscreen handsets, but we should also count the fact that the first Android prototypes looked much like a BlackBerry does today – sporting the familiar candybar full QWERTY form factor. This surely wouldn’t have looked like an iPhone competitor, so that might be one more reason for LG not working with the search behemoth.

In either case, the rest is history – HTC released the HTC Dream aka the G1 on T-Mobile, the first phone with Android, while LG has taken its time to go a full circle back to the platform.

source: WSJ via UnwiredView