LG Logo
An LG logo is seen during the International CTIA WIRELESS Conference & Exposition in New Orleans in 2012. Reuters/Sean Gardner

LG is not likely to manufacture a successor model for the LG Nexus 5X this year. Early speculations have suggested that Google may consider manufacturing the Nexus 2016 smartphones on its own.

According to CNET, a spokesperson from LG had revealed during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 event in Barcelona last week that in to concentrate on popularizing its own brand LG will not be manufacturing a Nexus smartphone this year.

Since 2010, Google has worked with various smartphone manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and LG in building Nexus smartphones. When a Nexus device is sold in the market, it is marketed as a Google product which means the name of the company that has built the device is not advertised. Also, the company that makes the Nexus device does not earn huge profits, GSM Arena reported.

In 2015, the midrange LG Nexus 5X was released alongside the premium Nexus 6P smartphone. However, there is no information available yet on the sales performance of the LG Nexus 5X. LG has so far manufactured three Nexus devices for Google, namely LG Nexus 4 (2012), LG Nexus 5 (2013) and LG Nexus 5X (2015).

Last year, most flagship smartphones were powered by Snapdragon 810 chipset. However, the LG G4 featured Snapdragon 808 chipset. Hence, the device was not considered as a flagship smartphone. In this year, LG has already launched its successor, the LG G5 with most powerful Snapdragon 820 chipset with a unique modular design.

At the start of 2016, the rumor mill began claiming that just as Google manufactured the Pixel C tablet, the Nexus 2016 smartphones will also be manufactured by the search engine giant. Just as Apple develops the software and hardware for its iPhones, Google too is expected adopt the same strategy this year.

Other rumors suggest that Google will be partnering with HTC for building both the Nexus 2016 smartphones. HTC has built Nexus One smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet in the past. The leakster added the Nexus 5X will be coming with 5-inch display whereas the Nexus 6P with 5.7-inch screen.