LG Considering Leaving Smartphone Market

[ThePointblank]

This via Ars Technica, whom is quoting various news outlets in Korea:

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/lg-says-it-might-quit-the-smartphone-market/

 

Quote

As usual, things are not looking good for LG's phone division. As reported by The Korea Herald, LG Electronics CEO Kwon Bong-Seok sent out a staff-wide memo that the company was considering making major changes to its smartphone division, including possibly quitting the smartphone business.

 

Last week, Korean news outlet TheElec also wrote about this memo in a now-deleted post. The post was deleted because LG brutally debunked the report, calling it "completely false and without merit." This week, LG is confirming basically the same memo report from the Korea Herald, complete with comments from LG. The Verge also got a thumbs-up from LG about the report.

 

“Since the competition in the global market for mobile devices is getting fiercer, it is about time for LG to make a cold judgment and the best choice,” an LG official told the Korea Herald. “The company is considering all possible measures, including sale, withdrawal, and downsizing of the smartphone business.”

 

To summarize, LG is considering a major shake up to their smartphone division, and leaving the smartphone business is on the table due to mounting losses and a shrinking market share, with a possible decision being made by January 26. Per a now deleted article that Ars is quoting, LG's senior management has directed their smartphone division to halt all research and development on new phones, except for the flexible display rollable phone that they've previewed.

 

Honestly, I never though LG's phones to be that competitive. Samsung has basically grabbed the bulk of the Android smartphone market, and LG's quality control was questionable at best, with the previous known issues that had lead to lawsuits against LG. Coupled to poor design decisions and a basically non-existent software update policy, their phones never seemed to make sense or good value at the higher end of the market.

[suicidalfranco]

sad to see them go if it's true, but then again the last good phone they've made was the V10.

[Quackers101]

*then they go full in on making the best screens with new and awesome tech*

[williamcll]

Yeah they some serious improvements if they want to compete with samsung or any other Asian phone manufacturers.

[NeuesTestament]

I can't remember the last time I saw a LG phone in the wild. It's not like they have any market share to speak of right now.

[Levent]

Having owned a LG G4 and a G3 with both needing motherboard replacements within a year, those two devices got a total of 4 updates in the 5 years I used them. Good riddance, they dug their own grave and this comes as a no surprise. 

[kakik09]

Former smartphone incumbents steadily declining. Barring Samsung, you'd think anyone who touched Google's Nexus line was cursed or something.

[Doobeedoo]

Well shame in a way but yeah, they had some cool devices, but nothing too major for a while. Competition is fierce no doubt.

[CephDigital]

My current phone is a V50 and my last phone was a G6 so to see them potentially drop out of the smartphone business is rather saddening. I like what they do with their phones like not just keeping the headphone jack but having a DAC built in as well. Not to mention, they seem to be the most experimental like having a 2nd screen case or the Wing phone. Guess having constantly weird phones doesn't translate to good sales...

[pzspah]

LG phones are great, if they could just make a proper highend that doesnt hamstring an essential feature like the cpu or camera.

 

Could do with better marketing too.. 

[Guest willies leg]

Don't they make the Google Pixel phones too?

[Commodus]

This reminds me of why I get annoyed when people argue that Apple, Samsung et. al. make too much profit on high-end phones.

 

Yes, it is possible for profit to be excessive, but the obsession with price creates beasts like LG, HTC, and Sony... bleeding cash for half a point of market share. Yeah, you'll get a good deal on a Velvet, but the company is meanwhile starving its R&D and has little else besides price to compete on. Apple and Samsung are on top in part because they have the cash to advance their devices and aren't one quarter away from losing money.

[Blademaster91]

Well that's sad , LG was like the last one that cared about audio and kept the 3.5mm jack. I think LG would've competed better if they did what Nokia or Motorola are doing, making good mid range phones that aren't overpriced. I won't be going with Samsung again considering they're cutting too many features yet still charging flagship prices, i guess I'll go with a Pixel or Nokia if LG isn't going to make phones.

[Vishera]

They were great at making flagship phones at $500 with removable batteries,headphone jack and micro SD card slots,

If they make a phone like it with a flagship processor then they will take a huge chunk of the market.

[Sarra]

If they give the mobile phone market the finger, then keep making awesome display panels, then I'm all for it...

 

I've never liked LG phones. But... I never really disliked them, either. It's just a saturated market, and it seems to be pretty hard to compete with either Apple or Samsung...

[Zodiark1593]

I had two LG phones. One was a (hand-me-down) LG Optimus 2x which was a steaming pile that never saw an update past it’s first few months of existence. The Tegra 2 chip, despite being the first high-end dual core mobile chip to market, was, as Linus would put it, “Hot Garbage”. 
 

The LG G2 on the other hand (bought used) was a great phone, and the Snapdragon 800 was a great SoC. The buttons on the back, and being able to wake the phone merely by tapping the screen are excellent features I regularly used. The SD800 was a monstrous leap over the Tegra 2 in both features and performance that I don’t think I’ll see again, and going from a 800 x 480 screen to a 1920 x 1080 IPS stunner of a screen was astounding. 

[IAmAndre]

I wonder why there aren't similar discussions at Sony. At some point it looks like some brands aren't even trying to be competitive.

[Dabombinable]

I wonder what this means for my K41S and any future updates.

[miagisan]

Loved my V10, and the headphone dac was a sweet touch

[D13H4RD]

14 hours ago, Vishera said:

They were great at making flagship phones at $500 with removable batteries,headphone jack and micro SD card slots,

If they make a phone like it with a flagship processor then they will take a huge chunk of the market.

The problem is that nobody cares. When Samsung came out with the Galaxy S6 and omitted both a removable battery and microSD slot, LG's response was to essentially release a similarly specced (albeit pegged down a notch due to an SD808) device which kept the removable battery and SD card slot, but it really only got attention amongst the smartphone enthusiast community who were after those features. The rest of the general market continued to buy the Galaxy S6 despite the omissions.

 

The real problem with LG is their lack of direction over the last couple of years. The G4 and V10 didn't sell all that well in contrary to what the enthusiast community thinks, so they had to shape it up a bit with the G5, only for it to fall real flat on its face the very moment it came out (only somewhat saved by the V20). The G6 and V30 tried to go the "Refinement" route but ultimately still lost out to Samsung and the Chinese. Finally, they tried going a little wild and came out with phones like the Velvet and the Wing. Even though they aren't for me, I respect LG for at least trying to break the mold. Unfortunately, that too wasn't successful, compounded by LG's lack of actual marketing.

 

I know people like to point at the LG G4 and V10's bootloop problems as the cause of LG's downfall. While that certainly played a role, consumers tend to have short attention spans when it comes to issues like that. The real problem is really LG's poor marketing and lack of direction.

[IAmAndre]

6 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

They probably had and still have. I like my Sony phones: no gimmicky features, things working just fine as it was new, few scratches on the aluminum body (really miss my Z1 with glass on the back), waterproof, dedicated camera button, headphone jack, SD slot, reasonably good camera, good battery. 

Ugly designs, ridiculously high prices, and slow updates are part of the package too although a headphone jack is always a plus.

[crystal6tak]

Loved my V20, now using V30. (V20 backlight died, motherboard issue, screen replacement didn't fix it)

 

I loved the 16:9 ratio on the v20, the 18:9 ratio on the v30 is fine too. Really dislike those elongated 20:9 ratio. So much wasted space. My v30's 6 inch screen displays YT videos at the same size as an S21 ultra's 6.8 inch, unless if you stretch the video cropping out a large portion of it on the S21. Makes no sense.

 

I was waiting for a V series with under display front camera + audio jack. If it's not coming I guess I'll snag a V35 to replace my V30 once it dies.

[kvuj]

14 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

they open source everything

Pretty sure they don't open source anything other than the kernel. If so, then it's the law. Thanks to GPLv2, you have the right to demand your manufacturer's kernel code.

 

The cool thing they do is allow to unlock the bootloader, but a lot of companies do too (Google, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Asus, etc). Notably missing from that list is Samsung >.>

[Kisai]

On 1/21/2021 at 1:23 AM, ThePointblank said:

 

Honestly, I never though LG's phones to be that competitive. Samsung has basically grabbed the bulk of the Android smartphone market, and LG's quality control was questionable at best, with the previous known issues that had lead to lawsuits against LG. Coupled to poor design decisions and a basically non-existent software update policy, their phones never seemed to make sense or good value at the higher end of the market.

LG's phones were never good other than a few odd models. They were very average-to-poor build quality. 

 

 

[kvuj]

9 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

The kernel code, AOSP build scripts and configurations, up-to-date blobs recompiled for new kernel/Android releases (they can't share those due to Qualcomm SoC). AFAICR, the other standard apps can be redownloaded from the store, except for the camera (last time I checked was 2 years ago).

Was pleasantly suprised to find their build instructions, but as for blobs, they don't seem to recompile them for newer Android version than the last one possible with official updates. Your vendor partition will be the same.

 

I was wrong, certain devices (part of their "Open Devices Program") do get their blob updated past their last OS which is awesome.