Is LG doing bad? Sales?

flyingkytez

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We all know Samsung is globally #1 , Apple #2 , but who's 3rd? Google? (But Google is made by LG or HTC) Is LG doing bad? It's already been stated that HTC and Moto are at an all-time low, what about LG? I know the G6 didn't do well, then are they still on the top 5 US mobile brands? I also thought they were skipping the LG G7? What's going to happen you think?
 

pkcable

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You want US I suppose? No clue for the US, but LG or Moto would be my guess (and yea it's not close to the big 2), NOW worldwide it's a totally different story, same 1 and 2 (Samsung then Apple, this may be switched in the US), BUT 3 is probably either Huawei OR Xiaomi, and it's probably closer, BUT still Sammy and Apple blow away the competition!
 

flyingkytez

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Here's a recent article with global statistics. https://www.telecomlead.com/telecom-statistics/10-smartphone-vendors-in-q1-2018-83864
Top 10 in Q1 2018 are: Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, LG, Motorola/Lenovo, ZTE and TCL-Alcatel.

ZTE is now officially dead, sucks because I kinda liked their mid-range phones... They sold phones to N. Korea and Iran, against US policy. Huawei is also banned due to suspicion of Chinese spyware. The last I've heard from Android Authority, HTC and Moto are struggling. Xiaomi is not a USA brand. OnePlus is not a US mainstream brand, they don't sell in carrier stores. The Essential phone.. RIP, poor business decisions, trying to be like Apple/Google by not having a headphone jack.. too bad. They desperately sold phones during black Friday to make up for the losses. Google is a software company and tech giant, they sell software and mostly ads not actually hardware (as what people think, it's an OEM phone). In fact, the Pixel 2 sold poorly.
 
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flyingkytez

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What does LG have to do to be successful?

The G6 didn't do well. Some say better marketing? What exactly? Like more TV commercials, online ads? Or hire brand ambassadors? Celebrity contracts? In Korea, they are using a Korean boy band, BTS, to market. What ideas do you think will work?
 

chanchan05

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Globally LG dropped from No.3 pre- G3 and bootloop issues, steadily down to No.7 this year. Which is exactly why they changed management earlier this year. And yet none of their practices changed.
 

Laura Knotek

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Globally LG dropped from No.3 pre- G3 and bootloop issues, steadily down to No.7 this year. Which is exactly why they changed management earlier this year. And yet none of their practices changed.
I thought the bootloop issues were on the G4, rather than the G3.
 

bhatech

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Don't know about sales, but definitely LG is one of my least preferred OEM in general. Even though I buy pretty much every flagship LG flagships are always the ones which disappoint me the most. Only thing I love is the DAC other than that pretty much everything is average to me personally. G7 looks good though but again I'm not seeing anything in there which is making me go out running and buy one. I easily get tempted to buy new devices but with G7 I'm not and will wait a month or two to buy it on swappa or on a sale because definitely not worth for me at their asking price.

And also the LG fanboy here shoots down any criticism against LG, but IMO they always try to be like Samsung who I'm not a big fan anyway.
And lastly, at least in the US I hate how they let carriers dictate everything and don't even try to stand up for their products in general (yeah I know that's how people buy phones here). Also they ignore the US unlocked model completely for updates (one guy here will come and say why you care updates, updates are bad )
 

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LG became crap tbh, outside of the amazing DAC and the wide angle camera, their phones are just average with high price, even higher than Samsung in some countries.

For the nearby future, I'm staying with Huawei, as no one can compete with their battery life, the whole package just works great, while LG misses up something always
 

flyingkytez

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Don't know about sales, but definitely LG is one of my least preferred OEM in general. Even though I buy pretty much every flagship LG flagships are always the ones which disappoint me the most. Only thing I love is the DAC other than that pretty much everything is average to me personally. G7 looks good though but again I'm not seeing anything in there which is making me go out running and buy one. I easily get tempted to buy new devices but with G7 I'm not and will wait a month or two to buy it on swappa or on a sale because definitely not worth for me at their asking price.

And also the LG fanboy here shoots down any criticism against LG, but IMO they always try to be like Samsung who I'm not a big fan anyway.
And lastly, at least in the US I hate how they let carriers dictate everything and don't even try to stand up for their products in general (yeah I know that's how people buy phones here). Also they ignore the US unlocked model completely for updates (one guy here will come and say why you care updates, updates are bad )

The V20 was made for the fans. The G7 and V30 was when they finally gave in and tried to be mainstream because the mainstream is bigger than the small fan base. I don't view myself as a fanboy, just someone who appreciates phones that offer something useful and different. A fanboy is someone that's rigid and not flexible, for example if they remove a feature on a phone, they try to defend and justify it. I am not defending LG's decision with the glass body and curved screen, but like how they are still attempting to experiment a little with non-gimmicky and useful features.

As an LG fan (former Samsung), I know for a fact their phones lack and does not deliver a powerful punch but I'm OK with it just because of what they offer versus what the competition offers. ALL smartphones are "good enough", it's the features and experience that sets them apart. I'm not materialistic and care about the hottest and latest technology or camera (seems like people trash their phones just after a year and get the hottest new phone), I just want something that benefits me everyday.. a simple example is the headphone jack and micro SD, I have thousands of MP3s and podcasts and I still enjoy the simplicity and convenience of the headphone jack, which LG still has PLUS a Quad DAC + new BoomBox speaker. Nowadays, flagships focus on the physical appearance plus powerful camera.. meh I don't care as long as it takes a decent photo, anything now is merely nitpicking.. I care more about the other features which most flagships offer nothing new. OK 8GB of RAM, wow, do you need to spend $1300 of a beast of a phone? Overkill. We are comparing apples to bananas to oranges, they are all different and they should be different but at the end of the day, you eat it and enjoy it. The Essential phone was an embarrassment and example of why an "essential" and "pretty" phone is not what people want, and screw the whole "my software is better/faster than yours".. they are all running Android and they all work fine with a good enough camera and hardware.
 
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chanchan05

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Their revenue has dropped >20% over the past 3 years, and market share world wide is at its lowest currently. The only reason LG is alive in the US because the global competitors it has are banned in the US.

Outside, they're practically nonexistent. The US isn't the world. Even if they're 3rd in the US, they're operating on losses. It could mean very well they shut down when the losses mount up. They just need an identity.
LG is likely still third in the US.

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/us-market-smartphone-share/

They're doing fine in terms of marketshare.

Through Q1 2018 -
Apple
Samsung
LG
ZTE
Everyone else

LG declined (year-over-year) because they waited on the G7 ThinQ. But they're still third.

What are you expecting out of LG?
 

Ry

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Their revenue has dropped >20% over the past 3 years, and market share world wide is at its lowest currently. The only reason LG is alive in the US because the global competitors it has are banned in the US.

Outside, they're practically nonexistent. The US isn't the world. Even if they're 3rd in the US, they're operating on losses. It could mean very well they shut down when the losses mount up. They just need an identity.

Worldwide, it's a tough climb for everyone.

What are you expecting out of LG? If you want to be a top worldwide OEM, you need to make a dent with devices for China and India. Or you could focus where you're already doing well and be content with where you are worldwide.

LG is fine as long as the parent is OK with what they're getting out of it.
 

chanchan05

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LG is fine only as long as shutting down will cost them more money than continuing on. And as time progresses, if they keep their pseudo premium branding but without premium service, they're not going anywhere but down. Obviously the parent is not content. They sacked the CEO earlier this year.

You can't go out and tell everyone your device is premium and then drop the price by 1/3 after 2mos. Better us still just launch at that price in the first place.

As long as LG refuses to shell out the cash for proper marketing and support (they're even worse than Samsung at providing updates) they shouldn't try to play with the big boys Samsung and Apple whose marketing expenditure probably is even bigger than LG's income.

Instead launch their devices at OnePlus range (2/3 price of iPhone and Samsung), then eat that market up. Given the choice of OnePlus or LG, I'm pretty sure most will go LG as there are more pluses to it compared to OnePlus. (Same chipset, headphone jack, DAC, better camera). They're doing most of their sales in that price segment anyway, so just man up and commit to that segment.

LG doesn't really need to be a world wide top OEM. They just need to stop bleeding money. Motorola found its niche as the US low to midrange king. They're not losing money AFAIK, but they're not top in the world either. Basically, be the top OEM at the higher mid range segment. The almost flagships. Offer flagship specs at 2/3 the price of the flagships.

Worldwide, it's a tough climb for everyone.

What are you expecting out of LG? If you want to be a top worldwide OEM, you need to make a dent with devices for China and India. Or you could focus where you're already doing well and be content with where you are worldwide.

LG is fine as long as the parent is OK with what they're getting out of it.
 

Ry

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LG is fine only as long as shutting down will cost them more money than continuing on. And as time progresses, if they keep their pseudo premium branding but without premium service, they're not going anywhere but down. Obviously the parent is not content. They sacked the CEO earlier this year.

You can't go out and tell everyone your device is premium and then drop the price by 1/3 after 2mos. Better us still just launch at that price in the first place.

As long as LG refuses to shell out the cash for proper marketing and support (they're even worse than Samsung at providing updates) they shouldn't try to play with the big boys Samsung and Apple whose marketing expenditure probably is even bigger than LG's income.

Instead launch their devices at OnePlus range (2/3 price of iPhone and Samsung), then eat that market up. Given the choice of OnePlus or LG, I'm pretty sure most will go LG as there are more pluses to it compared to OnePlus. (Same chipset, headphone jack, DAC, better camera). They're doing most of their sales in that price segment anyway, so just man up and commit to that segment.

LG doesn't really need to be a world wide top OEM. They just need to stop bleeding money. Motorola found its niche as the US low to midrange king. They're not losing money AFAIK, but they're not top in the world either. Basically, be the top OEM at the higher mid range segment. The almost flagships. Offer flagship specs at 2/3 the price of the flagships.

They've corrected it with a leadership change and the G7 ThinQ will be the measuring stick.

Lowering the price lowers the margins and would probably just lead to more losses.

Proper marketing? Shell out for carrier shelf space and incentives for salespersons. But OS updates? That won't do anything.

But you don't want to shell out Apple and Samsung money? So back to square one.

Quietly, LG is number three in the US. Statistically, it roughly equates to 1 in 10 devices shipped is an LG. I think that's OK when 7 or 8 in that 10 are either an Apple or Samsung.

OnePlus is no threat to anyone in the US market.
 

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