LG pledges to issue three years of Android updates despite exiting smartphone business

South Korean multinational electronics company LG, which recently confirmed that it will be exiting the smartphone business, has announced a pledge to issue future Android OS updates to many of its smartphones, despite leaving the phone business altogether.

According to The Verge, LG's Velvet, Wing, G and V series phones from 2019 or later should be getting three Android updates from their year of release, and "certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series" will get two updates.

The Velvet had come out last year with Android 10, and its Android 11 rollout is currently in progress. This means that it should also be getting Android 12 and 13 at some point in the future, assuming Google continues its yearly cadence. LG variously describes this announcement as a "three-year pledge" and a "three-OS-update guarantee."

LG's announcement to issue future updates came as a little surprise because its phones generally wouldn't have been expected to get that many updates even while LG was actually in the phone business.

The company had announced a dedicated "Software Upgrade Center" in 2018, but little to nothing changed about its Android update situation. Most of its latest premium phones aren't scheduled to receive Android 11 until the end of 2021.

Earlier this week, LG's Korean website indicated that some selected models would also get an Android 12 update.

( With inputs from ANI )