LG promises three years of security updates after pulling out of smartphone biz

South Korean smartphone maker LG said today it plans to provide software and security updates for its premium handsets for up to three years after the year of purchase.

The company announced four days earlier, on Monday, plans to withdraw from the smartphone market entirely.

Today's announcement comes after intense backlash from device owners, who complained that the company's Monday's announcement was too vague when it promised software updates for existing customers but also added the caveat that the support period "will vary by region."

In a new announcement today, LG provided more details about what customers can expect, summarized below:

• All premium LG smartphones currently in use will receive up to three iterations of Android operating system updates from the year of purchase.
• The three OS update guarantee applies to LG premium phones released in 2019 and later (G series, V series, VELVET, Wing).
• Certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series will receive two OS updates.
• Unless Google changes Android's release schedule, the "three OS updates" equate to three years of support since Google releases a new Android OS version each year.
• Security updates will be included.
• The offer applies from the year of purchase, as LG will still be manufacturing smartphones through Q2 2020.

"The announcement is a little surprising because LG phones generally wouldn't have been expected to get that many updates even while LG was actually in the phone business," Sam Byford, news reporter for The Verge, pointed out earlier today.

LG was one of the first smartphone makers to announce support for over-the-air security updates back in the mid-2010s after the disclosure of several critical Android vulnerabilities.

However, the company had discontinued its security updates page in March 2019, according to server scan logs kept by this reporter.