LG putting tablets ‘on the back burner,’ focusing on smartphones

After finding little success with its line of Optimus Pad Android tablets, LG has apparently decided to quit while it’s behind. A company spokesman has today revealed that LG won’t be doing much new development on the tablet front, choosing instead to focus on smartphones. Along with Samsung, LG is one of the world’s biggest electronics OEMs out there, producing its own laptops, smartphones, TVs, and home appliances, so its decision to exit the tablet market (even if it’s just a temporary one) strikes us as a rather bold step to take. Then again, it also illustrates perfectly how difficult it is for any hardware manufacturer not named Apple to turn tablets into a profitable business — something which Microsoft’s overnight introduction of own-brand Surface tablets is not going to make any easier. As the LG representative notes, however, Microsoft’s Surface tablets are not seen as “competing with anything we’re focusing on at the moment.”