LG fans waiting for a new Nexus smartphone this year may be in for some bad news, as the company confirms it has no Nexus plans for now.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 in Barcelona, LG explains that it wants to focus on its own products for the time being, and it has no plans for a new Nexus.
LG gained Google's trust with the Nexus 4 back in 2012, then continued with the highly successful Nexus 5 in 2013. It sat out of the race in 2014, when Motorola made the Nexus 6, then rejoined the party in 2015 with the LG Nexus 5X, which launched alongside the Huawei-made Nexus 6P.
When it comes to a 2016 LG Nexus, however, the company apparently plans to stay out of it.
"LG needs to focus on its own brand," an LG spokesperson explains, as cited by CNET.
That doesn't mean that no new Nexus device will hit the market this year, just that it will likely not be made in collaboration with LG. Google will surely find other partners to make its stock Android devices, and we should see at least one new Nexus smartphone later in 2016.
LG says that it's been "totally happy" with its partnership with Google, but the resources necessary for the Nexus program could be put to good use for its own LG smartphones.
The confirmation that it has no new Nexus plans comes at an important time for LG, as the company just introduced its high-end, modular LG G5 flagship smartphone at the MWC.
The LG G5 will compete against other high-end flagships such as Samsung's Galaxy S7 and Apple's iPhone 6s, so LG likely wants to focus all of its resources on promoting and improving its new flagship.
The company spokesperson also says LG plays to resume selling the second edition of the LG Watch Urbane LTE, after pulling the device off the market over a quality issue. LG also plans to launch another smartwatch, but no additional details are available at this point.
As for the 2016 Nexus lineup, some early leaks indicated that Google may team up with HTC for at least one of the two new Nexus smartphones it plans to release this year.
