Report: LG considers shutting down mobile division after sale talks fall through

22 March 2021
LG was reportedly talking to Vingroup and Volkswagen to offload the ailing mobile division, but negotiations seem to have failed.

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  • Joe
  • gyW
  • 05 Apr 2021

Anonymous, 30 Mar 2021they can't stop the roll out for A11 even if the mobil... moreDo you have a link for the "must update to Android 11" law? :)

    • s
    • s
    • IDn
    • 02 Apr 2021

    shino03, 30 Mar 2021Sony and Lg has had different approach in the mobile area. ... morethats just nonsense. Sony's mobile division is doing poor job too. Actually theyve sold much less phone than LG

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • fur
      • 30 Mar 2021

      Anonymous, 27 Mar 2021LG better not close mobile business until they roll Android... morethey can't stop the roll out for A11 even if the mobile division is down cause there are obliged by the law to do it.
      Already V60 and velvet got A11 the rest will get it too

        • s
        • shino03
        • wYK
        • 30 Mar 2021

        Vegetaholic, 24 Mar 2021Prides/ego kill them. Lg, Sony they think they are top of t... moreSony and Lg has had different approach in the mobile area.
        Sony has retreated on the low-end and middle segment of mobile phones whilst Lg has gone the other route of selling on all segments at a loss.

        In contrast to Lg's fate, Sony mobile is actually doing pretty good with operating income generated in 2020 even if they have a small marketshare that is because they're only selling premium phones, with little to less midrange and low-end.

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          • IRS
          • 47K
          • 29 Mar 2021

          Its been Confirm they are shutting down their Mobile Division.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • 8xK
            • 27 Mar 2021

            LG better not close mobile business until they roll Android 11 update for my phone.
            Also, it is their fault, they should have been marketing phones better, not hiding specs (like essential stuff, if phone supports LTE-CA or not), etc. Oh, and not selling cheap phones (which they have) in markets that need those, like eastern Europe.

            Because I don't want to choose between Xiaomi and Huawei and whatever other chinese ad bloatware cellphone.

              ntraghav, 25 Mar 2021I agree previous commentator made a statement about copying... moreThis guy doesnt know all that much. All he does is write a long paragraph. All the knockoff stuff i have seen all over india are chinese imports.

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                • Anonymous
                • 7X2
                • 26 Mar 2021

                RIP Quad DAC LG phones! You will be missed.

                  they should've hired me. i think i could've turned this company around. i knew from the beginning, low quality, gimmicky phones don't sell well.

                    • W
                    • Wayne Morellini
                    • 7sq
                    • 25 Mar 2021

                    Kangal, 25 Mar 2021I agree, it is in fact stealing when you copy innovation fr... moreKangal, you sound intelligent. Are you Japanese?

                    As innovative as Apple is, they could be many times more innovative. HP did a lot, but not as flashy. The truth is very few people are greatly innovative. Brands like Apple often buy in innovation, the innovation existing before people think the brand invented it. The amount of obstacles to financially exploiting the many innovations you can design into a product, and manufacturing marketing and distributing it, is all bent to towards big companies, and severely holds back innovation. We could be, figuratively like, 100x more innovative if patenting was automatic like copyright. Mankind could even be traveling to another star before the end of the century. That's the sort of hold back the "might makes right" stingy community does to itself.

                    I personally get so sick of seeing poor and defective design, I eventually send in design suggestions. Hundreds to google and maybe hundreds to an old web browser, even the windows blue screen of death. Often adopted. A number of things just hang there for months, years, even decades without development addressing it. It makes you wonder why on earth they miss these things. Even obvious big things. These are corporations with enough resources to single handedly to remake the whole world instead. But this requires right management hiring and promoting the right people. Hiring slack people, with little skill and imagination just winging it, leads to confusion and defect, and holds back innovation.

                      Kangal, 25 Mar 2021Southern Asia. That is India and surrounding countries. No... moreI agree previous commentator made a statement about copying with respect to Asia... Could you pls be specific what made you think india or southern India is involved in a copying mess. Pls keep your facts ryt. None of the mobiles are made in India. It's all Chinese made and sold in India . Consumers buying a copy of an original make doesn't make them vulnerable to your comments. and If it's made in India it is really indian. Unless you know about a particular country pls do not share false information.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 7sq
                        • 25 Mar 2021

                        Kangal, 25 Mar 2021Southern Asia. That is India and surrounding countries. No... moreYep! If you trace the movements of the paternal type mutations of development of human populations, you see a number of populations diverging out of a central sub population into a group going to Taiwan, south east China, Korea and Japan, a second Asian group going to the Han area after Himalayan. Closely pictured in the Wikipedia diagram is a group that eventually goes west into Egypt, middle east, Caucuses and German Nordic Europe. All the so called mean spirited master races. Wherever the central population was in the Indus Valley Empire/western India as depicted or close to the Caucuses, today the closest genetic relative to Europeans in the dark Dravidian Indian population, the Chinese are not far off. The other races are likely refinements from survivor syndrome, inheriting the over productive stingy trait, which are common problems of continual discontentment resulting in issues. Some races are clearly got more of this, resulting in bigger issues. So, the self content like to take what they see they can do, we have people like this in European races to, let them they will kill steal and destroy, and make fakes. Yeah, we mostly all bad, in different proportions and ways.

                          Kangal, 25 Mar 2021Southern Asia. That is India and surrounding countries. No... moreNo, you said 'southern india'. Was asking about that.

                            Anonymous, 24 Mar 2021YOu can say you will make "the best...", "th... moreThat's not true at all.
                            LG is a massive company they have the: time, money, people, and resources. They can be successful. It is merely a CHOICE if they want to be successful or not. Trust me, it seems weird, but many companies (aka Management) make the wrong choices. Sometimes the choices are risky and it dooms the company, other times they're too strict and don't innovate.

                            On top of all this, it is FAR EASIER to build a lineup of great phones in 2011 and beyond. You can (figuratively) go window-shopping for parts. OS... Stock Android. Ecosystem... Google. Processor... Qualcomm. Camera... Sony. Screen... Samsung (or LCD). Battery... Panasonic. Then put it all together, add a few other parts, voila! You now have a smartphone. It really is quite a lot more easier, and that is what Pete Lau did when he founded OnePlus (and he did it all for free, with guerrilla marketing, kickstarter pre-orders, and free money/funding from BBK Electronics, even including free workers/staff from Oppo).

                            ......whereas back in 2008 or earlier, you had to build that stuff yourself. And that's what the likes of Apple did. Samsung was also doing that with their Bada OS, for those that rememberer.

                              Mediatek sux, 25 Mar 2021On what basis did you determine its more rampant in souther... moreSouthern Asia. That is India and surrounding countries.
                              Northern Asia, is mostly Russia and surrounding countries.
                              Eastern Asia, is mostly China and surrounding countries.
                              Western Asia, is mostly Iraq and surrounding countries.
                              ....remember we are talking about the largest continent on Earth!

                              Do note, this is not saying that these people are bad. I am merely agreeing with the previous commentor when he said there is a "copying issue" that happens in Asia. It is cultural. Besides the Western Nations have their fair share of cultural "issues" too.

                                Kangal, 25 Mar 2021I agree, it is in fact stealing when you copy innovation fr... moreOn what basis did you determine its more rampant in southern india than other parts of the country?

                                  Anonymous, 25 Mar 2021During the 1980's I gave up the idea of producing an A... moreI agree, it is in fact stealing when you copy innovation from others without getting permission, acknowledging them, and compensating them. This is rampant in Asia, from the Northern Russians, the Western peoples, the Southern Indians, and the East towards China.

                                  With that said, there is a sort of monopoly happening with USA and other Western Nations. This is one of the most important, it is the monopoly of innovation. The corruption and collusion that happens here negatively affects consumers. One example is "big pharma".

                                  So with China blatantly stealing from Western Nations, it actually spurs competition. So as a consumer I thank them. However, if you lean too far, it would mean the death of innovation (why innovate if there's no profit). The opposite is also true (why innovate when the competitors/lawmakers will sue you). It's a bit of a tight-rope.

                                  Hence, why companies actually need to STFU and be intelligent in their business practices. Apple is the best here. They actually are the most innovative phone manufacturer in the world. That is not debatable, it is a fact. I am not a fanboy, I don't like Apple, but I admit to it. They also litigate like hell, and they are very secretive about their Intellectual-Property. On top of this, they are always looking for improvements, and ways to make their company generate more value and more capital for their shareholders. Before they had a failing Mac business, and a one-trick-pony iPod product. They grew that into a Digital Music Revenue. And then they innovated with: Advertisement, Mindshare, iOS software, iPod, iWatch, iTouch, iPhone, iPad, iTV, iCar, Processors, and Subscription Model for many many digital services.

                                  At least a dozen companies could have done the same, could have done more, could have done sooner. It was a management CHOICE for them to NOT innovate. Lacking vision. Like when the CEO of Blockbuster tried to buy Netflix for a couple million dollars and shift the company, he was fired by the Board of Committee, because Blockbuster didn't want to sacrifice the revenue they were getting from "late fees" on Cassettes/DVDs. Blockbuster went into obscurity, then they went bankrupt almost overnight. Whilst Netflix was intelligent with their business and grew to become a mammoth. LG needs to stop being Blockbuster and start being Netflix. They have the time, money, people, and resources. If they are not successful, most likely it is because they didn't innovate, and the root of that is because they chose to fail.... it is never a case of "cannot".

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 7sq
                                    • 25 Mar 2021

                                    Anonymous, 24 Mar 2021Chinese phone makers operate on a narrow to almost nil prof... moreDuring the 1980's I gave up the idea of producing an Australian made computer that could be marketed world wide. I realised the Asian competition, with artificially low wages, would just wipe it out, and I couldn't trust manufacturing sources over there to do the right thing. How 100% that turned out. I know exactly what I could have done, starting with a system similar to an Amstrad, but with 256 colour in the low end mode complemented by 80 text column business mode, and a better derivative of com. Most all 8 bit computers lacked this combination, which made the move to 16 bit necessary. Ironically, the failed microscoft MSX standard had third generation graphic spec like that in a machine in Japan. It would allow a few bank switching schemes for future models to hit 128-256k+ for business and some 16 bit like games, before moving to 16 bit and 32bit, but if fine right, able to move into a straight PC version based on NEC V chips, then other PC Chips. Tandy made a home computer PC, with a but better graphics, but kit 256 colours. But, with the stuff I know now, staggeringly more could have been done in hindsight. An ultra small circuit can give a very large straight 4-32 bit map, a CPU of a few thousand transistors could have blasted away the 8 bit competition, and be expanded to 128 bit today. Compressed innovative graphics and sprite modes, some of which could have been used in the 1970's to blow away the consoles then, and the 16 bit consoles to come. For 10,000 transistors a whole chipset system at a fraction of the transistors of an ARM, similar or less than the trabsistor counts of leading 8 bit could of the day. Doing a deal with owners of a struggling chip foundry to invest and fund, it could be made to undercut everybody (CBM bought a foundary to do that). I still feel like wasting my time designing a 3D printed electronics version sometimes. But, the Asians ruined all this innovation by their undercutting rip off versions of others work, and a lot of the industry was left competing with junk which would have been cutting edge in the 1970's. We had an manufacturer of the microbee educational computer here, who actually invested in a revolutionary 16 bit machine which could beat Amiga, but they pulled out of that, and their late PC line, because of this issue with Asia, which I think is where the revolutionary technology sent to, and the revolutionary Sinclair Loki technology, and the RCA revolutionary digital disc based video technology.

                                    Now, if I want to do a phone, I have all this stuff in Asia, and I do get asked to start up a Kickstarter to do something. So massive investments, then handed over in trust. Even if the partner or licensee manufacture is doing the right thing, it doesn't stop others from stealing it from them, and others making knock offs. That after you are paying very expensive pattenting and reoccuring fees across many countries, let's alone the fortune to fight a patent money.
                                    If you tried to manufacture and market and distribute it internally yourself for the mass market, you could be up for 100 million, even a number of hundreds of millions. Even Apple, just pays the Chinese to manufacture their stuff, they have money to fight stuff. Foxconn has a very good reputation though. 100 million is a river bridge, not much today.

                                    Unless we can get India, or other, on side in hi-tech manufacturing, it's difficult. But, 3D printing may save the day, undercutting the versatility of foreign manufacture. I have been exploring ideas for high speed low cost and high precision manufacture and other technology. Within 20 years, manufacturing could come back to first world countries. Any country that steps away, other countries won't need to import much of everything they got, leaving certain nations industrial wastelands in response to bully tactics.

                                    But to your post, ironic, that now they are charging brand loyalty pricing in Chinese phones.

                                      Vegetaholic, 24 Mar 2021Prides/ego kill them. Lg, Sony they think they are top of t... moreAbsolutely!!! Sony's biggest weak point is it's Battery however their best high cost mobile phone only has an average battery life... It's like when other manufacturers are competing each other in super sonic speed, Sony moves like a Tortoise eventhough it's a big player. Samsung who only used to give battery capacity of 3500 to 4000 mah realised but not too late and changed game by providing 7000mah...Both LG and Sony, HMD have failed to read consumer's minds...Motorola is finally trying to steal it's lost spot atleast with such few modifications... I guess you don't need to be brilliant to be on the top spot if you never have a competitive opponent... LG and Sony are much better in certain areas then Samsung only if they could exist to prove it.

                                        ntraghav, 24 Mar 2021Really weird though for a company like LG which has been in... morePrides/ego kill them. Lg, Sony they think they are top of the iceberg, better sell on loss than accept defeat and go to drawing board selling cheap phones and attracting more consumer instead they predenting they are niche to justify stupid prices. Like if you look at Sony, there is litteraly no sense at all in their approach same in LG.