LG unveils white Nexus 4, says it has no plans to produce a 'Nexus 5'

LG Electronics announced a white version of its Nexus 4 smartphone, the phone it built for Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) "Nexus" program, but an LG executive said the company is not currently working with Google on another Nexus-branded gadget.

white lg nexus 4

LG's white Nexus 4

LG said the white Nexus 4 will be available globally in select markets in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East over the next several weeks. The original Nexus 4, released last fall, sold very well and LG and Google couldn't initially meet demand for the phone, which was sold at $249.99 without a contract through the Google Play store.

However, in an interview with Dutch site All About Phones, LG's European vice president for mobile, Kim Won, said the idea of doing a Nexus-branded phone for LG's next flagship phone did not make sense because it "has no added value for us without our own skins."

LG later clarified the comments to The Verge and said that while the company currently has no plans to make a "Nexus 5," presumable the next Nexus-branded phone, LG would be open to working with Google again in the future. According to The Verge, Kim was instead referring to LG's overall mobile business and said LG's own Optimus-branded smartphones are strong enough that it doesn't "need Nexus" to be successful.

LG shipped a record 10.3 million smartphones in the first quarter, making it the world's third largest smartphone vendor, according to IDC. The company was the No.5  overall handset maker in the first quarter, according to ABI Research. LG is hoping that its partnership with AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) to sell its Optimus G Pro, which went on sale earlier this month for $200 with a two-year contract, will help it gain more traction in the U.S. market.

In other LG news, the company announced last week that it licensed from ARM Holdings the next generation of ARM Cortex-A50 series CPUs and the next generation of ARM Mal graphics processing units (GPUs). Such licensing deals could presage LG's development of its own chipsets, though nothing along those lines has been announced.

For more:
- see this LG release
- see this The Verge article
- see this CNET article
- see this ARM release

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