LG shutting Down It's Mobile Phone Business

[Warstud]

The reports out of its native Korea were correct, LG is shutting down its mobile business. With losses continuing to mount, and billions of dollars seemingly squandered on quirky handsets, the electronics giant has officially thrown in the towel on its struggling phone division. In a statement, the company said "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."

For now, LG said that its current phone inventory remains available for sale, and that existing devices will continue to receive after-sale support and software updates "for a period of time which will vary by region." The company expects to complete the winding down of its mobile business by the end of July, though it notes that some LG phones may continue to be sold after that date.

LG confirms it's shutting down its mobile business

LG is shutting down its struggling mobile business after failing to reverse years of losses.

www.yahoo.com

 

[mrsilv04]

In this context, Mobil does get that "e" on the end...

 

[SZR48207]

Lucky Goldstar

 

[tyman]

Oh wow dang

 

[celicaxx]

This blows. I got an LG G8 this December and so far it's been my best and least buggy Android phone I've ever had. OLED Display, good DAC chip for audio, having an SD card slot and headphone jack. I think LG's position is in part caused by LG generally being better as a whole device than just what their on paper specs would have you believe, but with the switch to mostly online sales, generally whoever can make for a spec sheet and not for an actual end user is the winner, as consumers aren't touching and feeling and holding the items in a retail setting to compare at nearly the same rate as before.

I thought this was a cool ad for my LG G8.

 

[fsdork]

That's too bad. My last three handsets have been LG G3/G5/G7 ThinQ (current). I've upgraded every two years because there's little cost incentive not to on my plan, not because there was anything wrong with the devices. I still use the G3 and G5 as WiFi devices at home, although the G3 is admittedly getting a bit sluggish now. I wouldn't have thought twice about getting a G8 or similar this fall when I'm due for another upgrade.

Maybe I'll give Motorola a shot this time around. It's been a while since my StarTac 7797.

 

[dishdude]

They made some nice devices but they were overpriced. They should have concentrated on the mid-level price point.

 

[dishdude]

That's too bad. My last three handsets have been LG G3/G5/G7 ThinQ (current). I've upgraded every two years because there's little cost incentive not to on my plan, not because there was anything wrong with the devices. I still use the G3 and G5 as WiFi devices at home, although the G3 is admittedly getting a bit sluggish now. I wouldn't have thought twice about getting a G8 or similar this fall when I'm due for another upgrade.

Maybe I'll give Motorola a shot this time around. It's been a while since my StarTac 7797.

Motorola makes some really nice devices at very competitive prices. I think they're a great value.

 

[Blinker]

After owning at least 5 LG phones throughout the years, I can truthfully say they were never 100% committed to the phone device business. Did LG ever fix their issue with GPS tracking on their phones? They had a known issue for years that affected multiple device families regarding the GPS antenna. Basically the GPS has issues pinpointing and locking your location which renders any type of navigation (google maps, waze, etc.) to be useless. I had the issue on multiple LG phones and was told by an LG authorized repair shop that the GPS module separates from the motherboard or something, and that it was a known issue across the LG lineup. I was told that LG made no attempts to solve the problem for many years.

With that in mind, I upgraded an older LG phone for a LG G5 back around 2016. I continuously had GPS issues with it, the screen started showing burn in spots, and the removable battery wouldn’t stay in place because the phone body flexed and cracked. After the experience with the LG G5 I decided to not buy anymore LG phones. Too many problems.

 

[KCJeep]

I'm kinda disappointed to hear this. I had one LG phone, I used it nearly 7 years without issue. I only retired it because it was 7 years behind in space and couldn't keep up with apps anymore.

 

[WylieCoyote]

I've had multiple LGs and they all had some weird problem or bug. One of them wouldn't ring when called, if you let it set untouched for more than 20 minutes. I'm finally on a lucky streak with Samsung, so no loss to me.

 

[OVERKILL]

I had an LG-built Google Nexus and it was the best android phone I owned. Switched to Apple after that.

 

[PandaBear]

My Nexus 5X were made by LG and they had a boot loop problem they warrantied once. As others mentioned LG never finish 100% of the work and commit to the phone industry. They are better off focusing on the screen production instead, and maybe baseband side of things like modem or patents. My mom also has an LG low end "free" phone. It is ok and still works, but I can see they have to keep cost low and already obsoleted today. You cannot make enough money to stay in business selling these kind of phones.

There are so many phone companies out there these days it is hard to make it above yet another "me too" product. You need to be the top guy to make money and the money is in the eco system not selling hardware like phone. That's the problem for most of the non-top guy (maybe except Samsung as they make everything and can afford to break even if they use all Samsung parts).

 

[Pew]

Not surprised. They had great specs, a DAC, and an amazing camera for their price point but QA/QC was shot. There were many G4s sent to sprint and Verizon that had the dreaded boot-loop problem. After my 3rd G4 having the boot loop issue I upgraded. The G5s had GPS issues, and my current G6's vibration stopped a month after buying it new. I'm just waiting on my G6 to finally die so I have a reason to upgrade.

 

[SeaJay]

It is often better to bow out gracefully than to keep doubling down on a losing business plan until the bankruptcy court shuts you down.