LG to Shut Down Smartphone Business

[MacRumors]

After five grueling years of financial losses and uncertainty about the future of its mobile handsets, LG Electronics today announced its intention to shut down its smartphone division.

In a press release, LG says the decision to shut down its smartphone business will allow it to focus on other sectors such as artificial intelligence, home computing, and business-to-business solutions.

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.

Despite its hardships, LG had multiple hits in the "incredibly competitive" market, including teasing the world's first rollable smartphone. For its devices still in the hands of customers around the world, LG says it will continue to provide user support and will sell its phones until the current stock runs out.

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.

In March, LG was considering exiting the smartphone industry, although, at the time, rumors suggested the company was aiming to sell the business instead of a complete shutdown. However, the lack of significant growth and mainstream adoption in recent years meant it was unable to find a potential buyer.

Despite the shutdown, LG says it will retain some of the core advancements that its smartphone business has made over the years, including research and development in 6G and connectivity to be applied to existing and future products.

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.

While the shutdown was announced today, LG says it expects its mobile division to completely cease by July 31.

Article Link: LG to Shut Down Smartphone Business

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

A sad ending to this.

Goodbye LG.

RIP! You will be missed

 

[hot-gril]

Smartphones really are a dying sector when you consider the inevitable rise of

LG smart fridges.

 

[Apple fan from Korea]

Sad. Their phones weren’t bad.

 

[MacFather]

HTC and Sony are next on the list.

 

[Vol Braakzakje]

Oh Gawd, 6G already? I hope it’s still many, many years away.

 

[rp2011]

Too many Android device makers in the market to be sustainable. It’s the lasting effect of commodity handsets that first took out Blackberry, Palm and Nokia. Now it’s cannibalism.
Expect to see the number of Android handset makers whittle down to just one or two Chinese companies.

 

[1Peace]

We will end up with Apple & Samsung & Chinese smartphones only.

 

[swm]

business to business?
that’s funny. the residential market is bigger by several magnitudes

 

[44267547]

LG didn’t make a ‘bad phone’, that wasn’t there pitfall. They failed at marketing, and became lesser over the years when the iPhone became very dominant around the 2013 timeframe. It just goes to show you how stiff this competition is, but even Samsung is on the decline with smart phone sales, and really Apple has dominated the market Year-after-year.

 

[Shanghaichica]

LG were always a second rate Samsung. That said it’s sad to see the earlier players in the android market go out.

 

[firewire9000]

HTC and Sony are next on the list.

Wow I thought that HTC was already dead.

 

[_Spinn_]

So much for the rollable phone they just showed off.

 

[femike]

I had one LG phone and that was in the pre-smartphone era, a flip phone, and the build quality, build tolerances and its design were perfect. I remember commenting on it at the time.
The only smartphone I had made by LG was the Nexus 4, and again it was made very well with good tech specs, and is still functional today.

 

[ian87w]

Too many Android device makers in the market to be sustainable. It’s the lasting effect of commodity handsets that first took out Blackberry, Palm and Nokia. Now it’s cannibalism.
Expect to see the number of Android handset makers whittle down to just one or two Chinese companies.

Considering the large pie, there are still room for many players. The problem is the rise of Chinese OEMs who are undercutting these traditional players. Eg. Xiaomi only put 5% margin in their prices. With this, it's much harder to compete unless you've been building a strong brand from the get go (eg. Samsung). Old players like Sony probably are also hindered with internal management style (eg. Just look at how long the mobile and Alpha division bickered against each other).

I have actually spoken with people who had worked with LG mobile here. Most of them pretty much universally said LG has great devices, but they just piss poor at marketing compared to their rival Samsung.

 

[Quu]

Sad thing is even if you have a great phone it doesn't guarantee success. The marketing budgets required to lift these things into the publics consciousness are ginormous. It seems like eventually it'll just be Apple, Samsung, Xiami, Huawei and Oppo in the space with 99.9% market share shared amongst them.

 

[pratikindia]

I had an LG phone during Android 2 and it was great. Build quality, reception, audio, everything was great. Served me many years without any issues and with updates. Sadly, I think LG could not continue with Samsung‘s strategy, otherwise I think they could have been successful.

 

[pratikindia]

Considering the large pie, there are still room for many players. The problem is the rise of Chinese OEMs who are undercutting these traditional players. Eg. Xiaomi only put 5% margin in their prices. With this, it's much harder to compete unless you've been building a strong brand from the get go (eg. Samsung). Old players like Sony probably are also hindered with internal management style (eg. Just look at how long the mobile and Alpha division bickered against each other).

I have actually spoken with people who had worked with LG mobile here. Most of them pretty much universally said LG has great devices, but they just piss poor at marketing compared to their rival Samsung.

Chinese brands had a very good strategy. Just check their prices compared to 2 years ago. First sell devices with little profit and when people buy them more, raise the price gradually. That’s the success story for them.

 

[djcerla]

They should have switched to Android.

/s

 

[newyorksole]

LG is a great company. They have a lot of other things going for them so they’ll be alright. Maybe one day they’ll come back.

 

[Mr. Dee]

When it came to smartphones, they were an afterthought for me. I don’t know if it was the name ‘LG’ itself or the preoccupation with iPhone vs Samsung. But when looking at Android brands it just never stood out.

 

[Christian 5G]

Oh Gawd, 6G already? I hope it’s still many, many years away.

I know right! I want my username to still be relatable for at least few years

 

[ScottishDuck]

I think if they’d utilised webOS in their phones they could have carved out a good niche for themselves

 

[kerr]

Too many Android device makers in the market to be sustainable. It’s the lasting effect of commodity handsets that first took out Blackberry, Palm and Nokia. Now it’s cannibalism.
Expect to see the number of Android handset makers whittle down to just one or two Chinese companies.

I really wish there was a viable third mobile operating system. I was a massive Palm fanboy in the late 90s into the 2000s, but like so many others, they blew it.

 

[Abazigal]

Sad thing is even if you have a great phone it doesn't guarantee success. The marketing budgets required to lift these things into the publics consciousness are ginormous. It seems like eventually it'll just be Apple, Samsung, Xiami, Huawei and Oppo in the space with 99.9% market share shared amongst them.

Apple has changed the rules of the game. It’s not enough to just have a good phone. You need the whole ecosystem to provide a cohesive experience for the end user.