The Rise and Fall of LG Mobile: How Innovation Wasn’t Enough

LG has announced the closure of it’s mobile department, which means the company will no longer make new smartphones, bringing an end to a somewhat unique but relatable android hardware and software experience. Although LG smartphones were relatively successful in the outset, this gradually changed, and the decline led to years of losses.

A lot of things can be attributed to the downfall of LG mobile, but the most outstanding ones include their poor marketing abilities, underwhelming software and inconsistency. It is important to understand that LG made some of the most quality devices, managing to make phones that had better build and aesthetic value compared to the offerings from top competitors like Apple and Samsung, placing an LG G6 and an iPhone 8 from the same year side by side, you’ll notice how externally better the LG offering is, having less bezels and looking less outdated. LG also didn’t just build good looking devices, they were also one of the pioneers of many features that are a constant on all smartphones today, things like slimmer bezels, and the 18:9 aspect ratios on the G6 from 2017, an ultrawide lens on the G5, a triple camera setup on the V40, the list goes on and on. Although LG were usually quick in debuting new ideas to the smartphone market, when their competitors eventually copied it, they ended up doing it better than LG in most cases, an exception is the high quality quad DAC that LG introduced and kept on most of their flagships making them the true Audiophile company. A downside of pioneering new features was that sometimes, some of their offerings made no sense like the vein and hand ID on the LG G8, while this may be unique, in the long run they were just gimmicks, in other cases they were not fully refined, an example of this is the modular build of the LG G5, which they failed to justify and support with useful modular attachments. In all these cases, these badly implemented new features became a reason not to buy these devices, which was obviously the opposite of what LG had in mind. Sometimes though, no matter how good a new form factor/feature was, people weren’t just into it, a good example is the recent LG wings which didn’t take off. In most cases, LG always went ahead to discontinue these features they had introduced, while this is good in the sense that they took customer feedback seriously, it also made them appear clueless, and the inconsistency in the form factor over the years made it impossible for a user to predict what they might get from the successor of a device they might have fallen in love with, which meant it was easy to be swayed by offerings from other manufacturers, a bad recipe for maintaining customer loyalty. For people who were not bothered by this though, there was the software.

Software greatly plagued LG mobile throughout it’s reign, the LG UX started out as bloated and poorly built Android UI, it did become very refined over the years though, even adding a lot of useful features, but it failed to deliver updates in a manner that was expected of a premium smartphone maker. It was always clear that LG was more of a hardware company, so it’s software department suffered, an exact reverse of what we’ve seen with Google and it’s pixel line so far, but software aside, something else LG wasn’t so good at was Marketing.

Terrible marketing is a good way to get yourself outcompeted by your rivals, and that was the path LG mobile unintentionally chose, chances are if you’re reading this, you probably didn’t know LG still made phones, this was a result of lack of aggressive marketing as seen from other brands like Samsung and Xiaomi, LG repeatedly failed to make people aware of their products and what made them a better choice, things like it’s superior Audio experience, the fact that they kept and improved the 3.5mm jack while everyone else was removing it, and that their devices were the same premium build of the top end phones while costing significantly less, are all examples of points they could have used in well placed and well timed Ads. Something else that has been blamed for LG mobile’s demise are tech influencers. Yes, some people insist that poor coverage of LG devices and overly harsh criticism by YouTubers and writers alike played a major part in its downfall, while the extent to which this is true is arguable, I’d personally agree with it being somewhat true. For example, LG’s lack of consistency was criticized a lot, but towards the end when LG began to settle for what everyone else was doing, they were also criticized for being 'boring’. In the end LG was just a victim of their own standards, it’s interesting to note the relative power that Tech influencers hold in the smartphone industry.

LG will continue making other types of products that earns them profits, sadly the smartphone market has lost a major innovator and player, but even more sad is the fate of the few customers who have stayed loyal to the brand all these years, while there are countless amounts of brands they can choose from, none will be exactly like LG. Fortunately though, LG has made commitments to provide software support for their more recent devices for a reasonable amount of years, a very noble commitment considering their track record, and a little consolation for everyone it benefits.