Report: LG wants to release the G6 early to get a head start on Samsung

LG’s smartphone division has gone through a bruising year. The phone that was supposed to drive its recovery, the G5, turned out to be a dud. People just didn’t like it, and the its modular “friends” proved just as disappointing.

It makes sense for LG to accelerate the transition to its next flagship.

According to a report published by ETNews, a well-respected Korean outlet, LG wants to have the G6 in stores a full month earlier than its predecessor. The LG G6 will supposedly go on sale around late February or early March. In contrast, LG announced the G5 in late February and released it in early April.

LG is reportedly trying to take advantage of a favorable window opened by its rivals Samsung and Apple. The former is rumored to delay the launch of the Galaxy S8 for April, while the latter is expected to hit a sales lull around the same period.

If it sounds like you’ve heard this before, it’s probably because you have. Every year, manufacturers jostle to one-up each other, and a phone’s release date can play a big role it its sales performance. It should come as no surprise that LG is racing for a good spot in the calendar.

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LG has already started to approve component suppliers for the G6, as the company aims to bring up mass manufacturing by a month, ETNews reports.

“It seems that LG Electronics has pushed forward the release date of G6 after believing that release dates of its products are late compared to its competitors’ products,” a source said.

LG is deep in the red: the company recently announced another quarter of losses, the sixth in a row. There’s a lot riding on the success of the G6. In September, the company said it had faith in the modular approach, but rumors are pointing to the contrary. According to sources out of Korea, the LG G6 will feature a non-modular construction, with highlight features including water resistance, mobile payments integration, wireless charging, and potentially a Note 7-like iris scanner.

If today’s report is accurate, LG might launch the G6 before MWC, which is set for February 27 – March 2 2017. That would give it time to prepare a release in early March. There’s also a chance that the G6 will be unveiled at MWC 2017 and made available in stores within days, though that seems less likely.

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