LG's family tree of smartphones just gained another branch.
The South Korean electronics conglomerate on Thursday showed off the V10, a smartphone with a unique, secondary ticker screen atop the main display that shows commonly used apps, weather information and time. It also sports a pair of front-facing cameras for higher-quality selfie photos.
More important than any specific feature found on the V10 are LG's ambitions for the smartphone as the foundation of a new franchise. The company said it is already planning a sequel device next year and believes the larger screen will give consumers another premium alternative to the iPhone 6S Plus and Galaxy Note 5.
"This is the beginning of a new series," Ramchan Woo, vice president of product strategy for LG, said in a roundtable session with media.
The V10 with its 5.7-inch screen marks a more concerted effort by LG to build a competitive phablet, a category of larger handsets that look like a cross between a phone and a tablet. It's a market that has grown, thanks in part to Samsung and its Galaxy Note franchise. While Apple doesn't break out specific model sales, the addition of the iPhone 6 Plus with its 5.5-inch screen helped turned last year's generation of iPhones into the company's best-seller of all time.
LG is hoping for some of the interest in phablets to rub off on the company.
The brand challenge
Where Samsung and Apple both extended their well-known brands to their phablet lines, LG has opted to create a new brand altogether."I can't think of another major vendor with a flagship line and a premium materials line," said Ross Rubin, an analyst at Reticule Research.
LG executives debated whether to stick with the G brand, which it uses for its flagship G4 and its G
Flex 2 smartphones, or try something different, Woo said. It chose to go with V10 to create a product without ties to the rest of its portfolio. It also wanted a number that was higher than four (as in G4), Woo said in a follow-up interview.
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