LG launches MediPain, a new digital medical device
Above is a home pain relief device from LG Electronics. The company has focused on the digital health sector after exiting its smartphone business in April. Photo courtesy of LG Electronics
SEOUL, Jan. 21 (UPI) — LG Electronics is betting on the digital health sector after scrapping its money-losing line of smartphones last year.
The conglomerate announced Thursday that it has launched a home pain relief device, called MediPain, as its latest health product.
LG Electronics said the machine, designed to intercept the transmission of pain signals in the brain, had won approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a medical device.
After the launch of the device in South Korea, the company will seek approval from other countries.
The company, which makes computers, TVs and home appliances, moved into the medical device sector after ceasing production of cellphones in April 2021.
LG Electronics launched an advanced X-ray detector using artificial intelligence last June. It also signed a partnership in October with KAIST, South Korea’s top engineering university, to create a digital health research center.
LG was originally a juggernaut in the cellphone business, once competing with long distance rival Samsung Electronics. In 2010, it took third place in the global market in terms of sales, after Nokia and Samsung.
Yet the company has failed to catch up with its rivals in the shift to smartphone products, the paradigm shift sparked by the advent of Apple’s iPhone in 2007.
As a result, LG Electronics incurred more than $4 billion in deficits in the mobile phone sector between 2015 and 2020, which forced the company out of the market.
“After ceasing its smartphone production, LG seems to be making great efforts to find new cash cows,” Park Ju-gun, CEO of Seoul-based Leaders Index, told UPI News Korea.
“To become a true powerhouse in the digital health market like GE and Siemens, however, LG needs to tap into the business-to-business market. I don’t know how ready LG is for that,” he said.