LG's mobile division has done a great job in delivering technically advanced phones, but it's struggled to translate its engineering might into real-world sales. The South Korean company recorded 59.7 million smartphone shipments last year, which amounts to a year-on-year improvement of just half a million. The fourth quarter resulted in a $37 million loss. Despite the wek resluts, LG has decided it will introduce "two new flagship models" in 2016 alongside "a more cost-competitive value chain."

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month will be the stage for the introduction of LG's first flagship smartphone for the year. Expected to be dubbed the LG G5, this Android smartphone has been rumored to have an all-metal design with some unique hardware features such as a dual camera on the back.

For 2016, LG Electronics also said it will make efforts to roll out various low-end models with improved design to take a larger slice of the market. It also plans to beef up the promotion of flagship products as well, including the V10 released last year.

Home entertainment sales offset weak smartphone sales

LG Electronics reported 349 billion won ($289.62 million) in operating profit for the fourth quarter last year, up 26.8 percent year-over-year, as a result of strong sales of its premium TVs and home appliances.

The company on Tuesday reported 14.56 trillion won in sales for the fourth quarter ended in December last year, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier, but up 3.8 percent from a quarter ago. Annual sales for 2015 stood at 56.51 trillion won, down 4.3 percent from the previous year, and operating profit reached 1.19 trillion won, down 34.8 percent.

The company’s operating profit plunged to 241.2 billion won in 2010 and 339.2 billion won in 2011 after peaking at 2.89 trillion won in 2009. Then it recovered to 1.24 trillion won in 2012, 1.25 trillion won in 2013 and 1.83 trillion won in 2014.

By sector, operating profit in its home entertainment (HE) unit surged to 109.2 billion won in the October-December quarter, propelled by sales of its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs and ultra high-definition (UHD) TVs.

As we previously mentioned, the mobile communication (MC) unit witnessed its sales decrease 0.4 percent to 3.78 trillion won in the fourth quarter from a year ago. It swung to an operating loss of 43.8 billion won from a year earlier, but loss narrowed from 77.6 billion won in the third quarter.

The home appliance & air solution (H&A) unit posted 214.8 billion won in operation profit in the fourth quarter, more than double from a year ago, and 3.83 trillion won in sales, up 1.1 percent on-year, thanks to increased sales of washing machines such as Tromm and Twin Wash.

The vehicle components (VC) unit in charge of automobile parts achieved 520.4 billion won in sales in the quarter and 9.7 billion won in operation profit.