LG has no immediate plans to produce further Windows Phone hardware, according to a statement provided to the Korea Herald. The company will instead be putting even greater focus on Android moving forward, and isn't being shy about its reasoning for the strategy shift: underwhelming retail performance. "The total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure," said a spokesperson.
Though it plans to continue research and development efforts related to Windows Phone, we don't imagine that'll do much to soften the blow of this loss for the folks in Redmond. LG, which has produced a number of WP7 handsets like the Optimus 7, will be walking away before Microsoft has a chance to ship its next major update (codenamed Apollo) to Windows Phone. Regardless of how intuitive the user experience might be, the platform will need to attract — and more importantly keep — OEM partners for any chance at gaining significant traction with consumers.