LG’s new G4 phones will have leather backs

Juno Cho, President and CEO of LG Corp., holds the LG G4, during an event Tuesday, April 28, 2015 in New York. LG is making smartphones with leather backs as it seeks to distinguish its phones from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Juno Cho, President and CEO of LG Corp., holds the LG G4, during an event Tuesday, April 28, 2015 in New York. LG is making smartphones with leather backs as it seeks to distinguish its phones from Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

By Associated Press April 28, 2015 4 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – Optional leather backs and manual camera controls are two ways LG is seeking to distinguish its new G4 phone from Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.

LG’s mobile chief, Juno Cho, said a wireless trade show in Barcelona, Spain, last month confirmed LG’s belief that smartphones have become clones of one another.

“I was almost shocked,” Cho told The Associated Press. “Almost all the phones on display and introduced looked very (much the) same – the same metal casing and emphasis on thinness, overall form factors that are very similar.”

The message at Tuesday’s announcement of the new G4: We’re not like the others.

Apple and Samsung dominate the smartphone market, with LG Electronics Inc. and other companies vying for third place with market shares of less than 5 percent each.