LG closing down mobile phone business

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freitasm

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#284172 5-Apr-2021 14:19

Just received:

LG TO CLOSE MOBILE PHONE BUSINESS WORLDWIDE

Stepping Away from Phone Manufacturing and Sales Enables Company to Focus on Growth Sectors Including EVs, IoT and B2B Solutions

SEOUL, April 5, 2021 — LG Electronics Inc. (LG) announced that it is closing its mobile business unit. The decision was approved by its board of directors earlier today.

LG’s strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services.

Current LG phone inventory will continue to be available for sale. LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region. LG will work collaboratively with suppliers and business partners throughout the closure of the mobile phone business. Details related to employment will be determined at the local level.

Moving forward, LG will continue to leverage its mobile expertise and develop mobility-related technologies such as 6G to help further strengthen competitiveness in other business areas. Core technologies developed during the two decades of LG’s mobile business operations will also be retained and applied to existing and future products.

The wind down of the mobile phone business is expected to be completed by July 31 although inventory of some existing models may still be available after that.

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#2686642 5-Apr-2021 14:24

Not really a surprise I think. Android is so fragmented and there are so many players, quality has to give way to cheap.

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freitasm

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#2686643 5-Apr-2021 14:26

I think there's a good chance Motorola (Lenovo) would be next.

Interesting New Zealand rankings at this moment are Apple, Samsung, OPPO, Vodafone, Huawei and then all others.

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#2686652 5-Apr-2021 14:46

I fully expect a painful reckoning at Samsung. Their sku line and product proliferation is truly bonkers and so broken down Im amazed they make any profit for all this effort.

Apple has'nt helped themselves, with 7 phones, multiple colour and mem configurations...

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#2686698 5-Apr-2021 15:07

antoniosk:

I fully expect a painful reckoning at Samsung. Their sku line and product proliferation is truly bonkers and so broken down Im amazed they make any profit for all this effort.

Apple has'nt helped themselves, with 7 phones, multiple colour and mem configurations...

Agree with this. Samsung model range is fragmented and confusing, with a lot of overlap among the ranges.

If they made (say) 4-5 phones in the current lineup, from most to least expensive, then I think they would surely have to get better economy of scale.

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#2686699 5-Apr-2021 15:10

Not surprising, is a shame though.

i still run my V20 as a network test device....

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#2686730 5-Apr-2021 16:45

antoniosk:

I fully expect a painful reckoning at Samsung. Their sku line and product proliferation is truly bonkers and so broken down Im amazed they make any profit for all this effort.

Apple has'nt helped themselves, with 7 phones, multiple colour and mem configurations...

Not sure how 7 products is a problem for Apple. Most of them answer a specific market and they kill devices that don't. They are pretty much all the same device with a few minor differences.

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quickymart

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#2686773 5-Apr-2021 17:46

To be honest, I didn't know they still made phones. I remember Telecom (Spark) used to sell a fair few of them when the XT network came along in 2009.

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#2686856 5-Apr-2021 21:21

Sadly, it was "bleeding" obvious that they would have to stop.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/26/lgs-mobile-business-cant-stop-losing-money/

Plus the LG phone bootloop issue has continued to dog them.

I'm sad because LG has been great for me. I'm an LG G7 user and my phone was the best value $500-1,000 phone on the market when I bought it two years ago. It works very well - although not as optimized as the Samsung equivalents - and it has also been well supported e.g. with annual Android upgrades from 8 to 10.

qwertee

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#2686991 6-Apr-2021 08:37

Shame that they are doing this.

Been an LG user G2 G3 G4 and now using a V21. My G3 and G4 had the bootloop issue and was repaired for free outside the warranty period.
Need to look at other options when my V21 dies .

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#2686993 6-Apr-2021 08:47

The Dual screen LG v20 was probably one of the best, if not the best phone I ever owned (and I've owned a *lot* of phones). It's a shame to see them exit, but I can understand it.

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#2687097 6-Apr-2021 11:06

lg make great tv but there mobile phones where not very good for the price

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#2687156 6-Apr-2021 13:24

LG always felt like their hardware was fantastic value but their software always let them down. I had the Optimus 2x back in the day and the installed system was garbage, modders made much better software for it and made the phone decent at a great price. The Nexus 4 and 5 really showed what they could achieve by offloading the software side to Google, 2 great devices for the prices they were charging.

I was always surprised LG didn't just go the route of Android one to minimise their involvement with dealing with Android so they could focus on developing great hardware with minor software additions to utilise things like the good DAC.

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#2687255 6-Apr-2021 14:20

robjg63:

antoniosk:

I fully expect a painful reckoning at Samsung. Their sku line and product proliferation is truly bonkers and so broken down Im amazed they make any profit for all this effort.

Apple has'nt helped themselves, with 7 phones, multiple colour and mem configurations...

Agree with this. Samsung model range is fragmented and confusing, with a lot of overlap among the ranges.

If they made (say) 4-5 phones in the current lineup, from most to least expensive, then I think they would surely have to get better economy of scale.

Unfortunately it is the end result of management chasing after marketshare, no matter how small, by catering to niches that are so small the costs can't be justified in the long run. A lot of this niche catering is falling for the fallacy that consumers want the perfect device when in reality they want a device that is good enough at the right price - it doesn't need to be perfect, tick all the boxes, the exact size etc. but if it is good enough they'll buy it hence my amazement seeing the ridiculous number of variations that simply don't make sense.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

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#2688184 8-Apr-2021 10:00

antoniosk:

I fully expect a painful reckoning at Samsung. Their sku line and product proliferation is truly bonkers and so broken down Im amazed they make any profit for all this effort.

Generally, thats a way some manufacturers try to keep other brands off the market. They release so many models that new brands or other brands new models have difficulty getting into an overflooded marketplace .
If a retailers shelves are full of the various (say) Samsung models , they will be less inclined to stock another brands new models .

Its a marketing tactic from way back before cellphones were a thing .

I still have my LG G3 (now hardly worth selling ). Only replaced it last year. Still a great phone, except for poor camera & poor batt life .

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#2688191 8-Apr-2021 10:06

1101:

I still have my LG G3 (now hardly worth selling ). Only replaced it last year. Still a great phone, except for poor camera & poor batt life .

So not a great phone now, then?

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