LG has always made better washing machines than mobile phones
LG's beards have been trimmed. It is time for other technology companies' mobile phone divisions to retire. The market is overcrowded and there is nothing new emerging in the new smartphone launches. Apple and Samsung dominate mobile phone sales and the rest are in a race to offer more for less to unsuspecting buyers who are swayed by very dubious features.
LG is one of the few companies in the world with a two-letter name. It may go unnoticed, but it is very important in advertising campaigns for any of its products to burn those two letters into the memory of potential customers. Since 1958, the Seoul-based company has been involved in televisions, household appliances, monitors, air conditioning, etc. Its parent company LG Display is the world's second-largest marketer of LCD screens, behind Samsung.
The company was doing well until 2010, when it decided to enter the smartphone battlefield. Its net profit went from USD 2.209 billion in 2009 to USD 1.205 billion in 2010 and a negative USD 407 million in 2011, which it barely managed to recover the rest of the years. In 2014, it managed to close with a positive balance of 471 million dollars, a far cry from its figures prior to mobile sales.
LG opted for mobiles with a very careful design. This was a key point in its attempt to stand out from the rest. Handsets with attractive lines aimed to catch the eye of buyers in a showcase with overwhelming competition in both form and substance.
There are hardly any LG handsets left in our memories. None of them have broken the market and subdued the competition. Everything they did was already on the market or was so innovative that no one dared to bet on it. They added high quality screens to their designs to show off their LCD division, but that didn't convince the general public either, who kept their eyes on Samsung.
The nomenclature did not help either. All smartphones have numbers and letters embedded under their real names that help technical services identify the date of purchase for later fixing. Even Apple has these numbers, but Cupertino's marketing has taken care to leave no trace so that the buyer focuses on their iPhone 10, 11 or 12 only. Samsung does a better job at hiding these numbers in its premium range and LG was never quite right with handsets like the K22, K61, V60, V600, Q60, K420N... Only in the end did it come around with the LG Wing or the Velvet.
The 2013 experience with Google was a very good one when they released a very special mobile phone, the Nexus 5. It was actually the LG G2, but someone decided that they couldn't possibly compete with that name. A good processor, a 2Gb RAM, an 8Mpx camera, a 5-inch FullHD screen... The first phone that was ugly on the outside and powerful on the inside that turned on the light bulb for Huawei or Xiaomi to finish destroying the mobile market with their good, beautiful and cheap models.
LG's profit margin in 2017 was 0.3%. A technology company that has such a hard time earning every dollar that enters its coffers does not deserve to continue supporting mobile sales. On 31 July 2021 it will stop selling handsets, although it will continue to support the models sold so far. For example, the innovative LG Wing and its two screens will need a technical service to prevent the buyer from feeling cheated by paying almost 1,000 euros for a mobile phone from a company that no longer makes mobiles.
LG makes money by making washing machines. That's their real business, household appliances. They were the first to hang air conditioners that looked like paintings on the walls of houses. They made no noise and blended in with their surroundings. LG Signature is their premium line with useful technology and unique design lines. They haven't done badly with smart TVs. Their pure black banner with the Spanish astronaut Miguel López Alegría did make a strong impact on the market and forced the rest to work on better resolutions and colour ranges.
LG is getting off the mobile phone boat. A smart decision to avoid the collapse of the rest of the brand's segments. They have understood that it is better not to be in the mobile war than to lose all the battles just for the sake of fighting them. Let others stick it out and let Apple and Samsung defend themselves from the attacks of Chinese mobiles. But LG's exit will not be the only one. Not devoting oneself almost exclusively to manufacturing a product or not having others on the market to facilitate its arrival is a certain death.