LG Shakes Up Loss-Making Phone Business, To Outsource Lower-End Models (reuters.com) 25
LG said on Monday it had reorganised its mobile phone division to increase outsourcing of its low to mid-end smartphones, which analysts said represented an attempt to cut costs and compete with Chinese rivals. From a report: LG's mobile communications business, which has reported an operating loss for 22 consecutive quarters, has created a new management title for original design manufacture (ODM), a spokeswoman for the South Korean company said. This refers to the outsourcing of design and manufacture of smartphones, with LG putting its label on the product. It has also abolished some research and production positions and reshuffled others, the spokeswoman said, as part of an effort to focus its in-house R&D and production on premium smartphones, with low and mid-end ones to be produced by ODM.
Beginning of the end (Score:3)
When a company lacking a product in a given market does this in order to establish a market presence it can work sometimes, think of Honda lacking just about any kind of SUV licensing from GM the UCS69GW and UES73FW that were sold as the Isuzu Rodeo in North America as the Honda Passport, to start to establish themselves with SUVs.
When a company with a presence in the market decides to source whole products from other companies though, it often leads down a path of catering to the lowest common denominator, where more and more products end up badge-engineered for them instead of created by them, and after a certain point as the division slowly loses staff and shrinks in what's done in-house, the company may end up closing up shop on that department, licensing out the name to whomever is willing to pay to distribute products with that name.
The biggest example I can think of in the electronics industry is IBM, where their end-user products ended up being Lenovo. Likewise RCA went down this path and the once-proud company is little more than a licensable name to put on whatever quasi-electronics crap marketers want to try to squeeze a buck from.
LG have themselves to blame... (Score:3)
In short, they are incompetent.
I will refer to to my struggle to give them my hard earned cash.
It was in the days of the LG V30. I visit their website after failing to get the device from any carriers here. I fail to buy it online. I call their local toll free number, advising them my intention to buy the device.
I am told that the device will not be available for the next 3 months at least and there are no firm plans to have it sooner either - despite having made announcements to the contrary.
I just do not get it at all. A potential customer struggles to part with his cash. An experienced company but with what seems to be incompetent management fails to provide avenues to get as many devices to those who are ready to spent to get them.
They still continue with this practice. They haven't borrowed any leaf from the competition - OnePlus springs to mind.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple. 2020 weirdness aside, their usual modus operandi is to make the grand announcement, and then say "... and you can buy it now." For some iPhones, they have a delay so they get people lining up at AppleStores, but there's generally a small-to-zero gap between announcement and availability. Make it easy for the customer to part with their money. Nothing else is important if they can't give you cash when they want to.
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More like hit it while they can buy. If you add a delay, people hesitate. Think of it th
Re: LG have themselves to blame... (Score:2)
That is just one case though.
I wouldn't dare extrapolating it that much.
Re: LG have themselves to blame... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: LG have themselves to blame... (Score:2)
I had a similar issue with the V40, and was in a bit of a hurry for an international trip. But I simply refreshed the page each day until it was ready.
I want LG to survive, they have great cameras, no bloat (unlike Samsung), fantastic line-out audio.
Phones that don't suck (Score:2)
Maybe they could try the approach of making a non sucky phone. I mean, I bet the idea was suggested at a board meeting and quickly laughed down .. but really they ought to revisit the idea.
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LG has in the past made some genuinely great phones. There was a hardware flaw in the G3/G4 models that led to boot loops and for which it offered repair outside of the warranty period, but I do understand someone who was burned by that not buying another one.
In general, LG's V and G line have had top-end screens and CPUs. LG offered some oddball stuff too, like a high-end DAC for audiophiles using headphones and removable batteries for those of us who still want them. Their camera tech is on par with Sony,
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I got an LG K40 for free from T-Mobile, and it's not bad for a ~$120 phone. I have no idea if LG actually makes it or not, but it's a fair gadget overall.
Would I have bought one? Probably not, but not because it's no good; it's just not what I would have normally been looking for.
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I had a Nexus 4 and its digitizer died and it was too expensive to replace so I bought another phone... and resolved never to buy another LG, because I'm not spending hundreds on something only to find that it fails because it's fragile (pretty sure it died due to pocket sweat) and that it will cost hundreds more to repair.
Everything I've ever owned by LG has been shit and most of it has failed, I've bought two of their optical drives for example and both went tits up.
IME LG is poop
Don't flagship models only exist... (Score:2)
... to sell your midrange ones?
So ... are they removing their core business? The part that should bring in the majority of the profits?
Re: (Score:2)
... to sell your midrange ones?
So ... are they removing their core business? The part that should bring in the majority of the profits?
Lots and lots of people buy high end phones (partly because they are retarded and think a $1k phone makes you look wealthy), and they are extremely profitable compared to mid-range and low end.
Re: (Score:2)
But part of what makes those high end phones profitable is that your volumes in the general sense gives you lower cost to make the high end device.
Generally speaking a lot of costs go up dramatically if you make yourself a lower volume vendor.
That and LG doesn't have the brand strength to do it. At this point Apple and Samsung are about it, though Motorola is trying *hard* to remind people that 15 years ago they had that brand strength.
One less to choosse from (Score:2)
I need to replace my phone within the next two years because 3G will no longer be supported by AT&T. All I want and need is a phone. And not a "smart" one either. LG does have phones for AT&T, but they're all touch screens, no flips.
Suggestions on other companies?
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I need to replace my phone within the next two years because 3G will no longer be supported by AT&T. All I want and need is a phone. And not a "smart" one either. LG does have phones for AT&T, but they're all touch screens, no flips.
Suggestions on other companies?
Seriously, you want a flip phone?
I suppose you could buy the new razr, lol.
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I need to replace my phone within the next two years because 3G will no longer be supported by AT&T. All I want and need is a phone. And not a "smart" one either. LG does have phones for AT&T, but they're all touch screens, no flips.
Suggestions on other companies?
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=4g+... [amazon.com] Maybe something on there you'll be interested in.
Re: (Score:2)
I need to replace my phone within the next two years because 3G will no longer be supported by AT&T. All I want and need is a phone. And not a "smart" one either. LG does have phones for AT&T, but they're all touch screens, no flips.
Suggestions on other companies?
Seriously, you want a flip phone?
I suppose you could buy the new razr, lol.
Yes, I do want a flip phone [lolnein.com]. It's much more satisfying to casually look at someone after getting off a call and snapping your phone closed before removing your sunglasses and telling them they're busted. And no, this doesn't count [i.redd.it].
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Seriously, you want a flip phone?
I suppose you could buy the new razr, lol.
I like the flip phone form factor, but $1000 for one just seems ridiculous. (Probably because it is ridiculous.) At 1/4 of that price I might be interested.
What's left? (Score:2)
...to increase outsourcing of its low to mid-end smartphones
Isn't that their entire line?
Unprofitable? No problem. (Score:2)
If you can't make money competing with your smartphones, just outsource them to the slave labor companies in China like everyone else does. The formula for success is not complicated in the consumer electronics business.
Lol, and.... (Score:2)
"...which analysts said represented an attempt to cut costs and compete with Chinese rivals."
Gee I wonder where the phones will be made? Maybe in the next factory over from their Chinese rivals? Maybe in the same factory?
One thing is for certain and that is that they sure as shit won't be made here.
Re: Lol, and.... (Score:2)
LG is a Korean company. You do know the US doesn't own everything, right?