LG G6 a flop? Low sales?

[Aquila]

I passed on the Pixel because of lack of mSD card support. Samsung fans were outraged when they removed the mSD card on the S6. People are familiar with mSD cards thanks to Samsung for making it more well known on their phones. Sales associates always mention the mSD card support to customers if they are concerned with storage.

But you're sorta right too, the average person just takes selfies, surf Facebook all day long, and Snapchat friends every minute of their lives. I think built in internal storage should hold enough selfies.

Right but there's a HUGE difference between someone noticing it does or doesn't have a card and someone caring at all about it and then there's a huge difference between it being something they want or don't want to them making a purchasing decision based solely on that single feature. We're talking less than 1% of 1% of people that would be in love with a device and not buy it because of that one feature, which big picture means that it isn't driving sales figures in any way.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

The avarge consumer just wants their tech to work 100% of the time, every time and be useful for their needs - nice camera, good battery life, looks cool, doesn't drop calls.

Like others before them, LG has to make a case why their offerings make sense to those consumers they're chasing to better meet those needs I mentioned above. They didn't do that with the G6, and like last year's G5, you're getting an excellent value for money phone if you buy it now with the price drops.

 

[eshropshire]

Yeah, we have a lot of selection bias here on AC... Even the most unapologetically clueless poster here is probably WAY beyond the average consumer. That person couldn't be bothered with the processor being used, or what type of screen, etc... You are right, most see a phone advertised on TV and get the one they think is cool... get the newest available version of the phone they have... or simply get the cheapest option they see in store that they think is good.

LG's failure was that they didn't blow a HUGE chunk of cash and push the phone down everyone's throats. If LG slapped G6 ads on anything and everything, got themselves a dedicated section of Best Buy... LG stores in every mall in the land, etc... Yes, they would have sold a ton more phones. But they didn't.

What is the key value proposition they would advertise over the competition?

 

[eshropshire]

Lol SD cards have nothing to do with sales of different devices. Out side of the forums I've never heard of anyone passing on one phone for another due to storage options alone. 99%+ of consumers don't care at all.

Explain why the S6 was Samsung's worse selling S series. Why the HTC M7 phone of the year in 2014 crashed and burned in the market. At the same time explain why Google is having hard time selling Pixels? All three phones have one thing in common no SD card support.

 

[Aquila]

Explain why the S6 was Samsung's worse selling S series. Why the HTC M7 phone of the year in 2014 crashed and burned in the market. At the same time explain why Google is having hard time selling Pixels? All three phones have one thing in common no SD card support.

lol, no single feature is selling phones or preventing them from being sold. You can't say that people won't buy phones without SD cards, and then watch the iPhone still be the single most popular device year after year.

Google over doubled their sales expectations and did so despite ending up with supply issues.

HTC M7 was popular among reviewers, that's not the same as with consumers. Another example would be the Moto X 2013. No HTC phone has ever led the market in sales.

The S5? It OUTsold the S4, however despite that it came in at about 40% less than sales expectations. So they thought it'd outsell the S4 by even more, but ende dup not being that big. S6, same story.

 

[amyf27]

I get that...and agreed with that point until I went into a store and saw the prices on accessories compared to Amazon. Especially Best Buy.

Best buy will match Amazon pricing on same products.

 

[flyingkytez]

Right but there's a HUGE difference between someone noticing it does or doesn't have a card and someone caring at all about it and then there's a huge difference between it being something they want or don't want to them making a purchasing decision based solely on that single feature. We're talking less than 1% of 1% of people that would be in love with a device and not buy it because of that one feature, which big picture means that it isn't driving sales figures in any way.

I knew a lot of people passed on the S6 and Note 5 because lack of microSD support. Being limited to 32GB on the Pixel is a real deal breaker for me because I have hundreds of music and audio books. If you're going to spend $900 on a phone and one phone has microSD support while the other is missing one plus missing headphone jack, then it's a clear choice for some. I know that's more than 1% of people that want micro SD. Take that feature away on the next Galaxy and see a roar of outrage unless they can offer 128GB at a low price and not cost $1000.

BTW, no headphone jack on a smartphone is an automatic NO for me, I don't care how great the phone is.

 

[Aquila]

I knew a lot of people passed on the S6 and Note 5 because lack of microSD support. Being limited to 32GB on the Pixel is a real deal breaker for me because I have hundreds of music and audio books. If you're going to spend $900 on a phone and one phone has microSD support while the other is missing one plus missing headphone jack, then it's a clear choice for some. I know that's more than 1% of people that want micro SD. Take that feature away on the next Galaxy and see a roar of outrage unless they can offer 128GB at a low price and not cost $1000.

BTW, no headphone jack on a smartphone is an automatic NO for me, I don't care how great the phone is.

Yep, there's a few people that have a couple of "dealbreaker" spec points, but the vast majority of people don't know or care enough for it to change their purchase decision.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

This guy gets it. Probably the best review of the G6 I've seen:

https://youtu.be/GaBxELGg0hY

 

[LeoRex]

Well... that dude touches on a good point here... Advertising snafus aside, LG needed to make the phone more practical and utilitarian. They took a big risk with the G5 and it sort of blew up in their face. I won't fault them too much for that though. I applaud when an OEM tries to take a risk and move things in a new direction, the only problem with the G5 was that the execution of that risk took them things off the rails. So the wisest choice they could have made was take the 'solid and practical' route.

Of course, solid and practical doesn't always catch people's eyes when they go into the store. The G6's staid design (which I happen to prefer) tends to be a little bit anonymous when put in with other phones. So that, combined with the fact that there was really no effort to market the phone, puts us where we are today.

PS.. SD and headphone jacks... I am sure that to those people that really need them and use them, they are a major 'need' feature. But the buying public really doesn't follow the same path. Never make the mistake of assuming everyone else's experience matches your own. Like Aquila mentions... the most popular phone in the US has neither an SD card nor a headphone jack. They just aren't that high on the list for the majority of users (the G6 has both... hasn't helped them, has it?).

 

[MSFTisMIA]

I just questioned who LG's target audience is. Without a clear brand strategy, if both handset and marketing don't target the right audience, there is no sales.

It's like how some people have trashed the Key One. That phone isn't targeted for current multimedia consumption (which includes gaming), nor content creation. It's targeted for business and productivity types who value the QWERTY keyboard for various reasons. So while you can critique their chipset and RAM configuration choices, slamming it because of screen size, weight, etc doesn't make sense.

So why is LG after? The average consumer? Young people who bleed multimedia consumption and social media presence? Both and or neither? If the G line is for the wider audience, LG still needs to pick a combo of widely appealing features and make the case as to why their approach and their chosen feature set is better than Samsung's or Apple's.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Just saw my first G6 in the wild today...and of course, the owner is using Bluetooth headphones. We know the 3.5mm is DOA, but with any tech the transition period is always a pain.

I think LG has something with their focus on audio and camera, but will they double down to refine it or simply bow down and conform? Even thought I'm test driving this V20, I'm still inclined to look at a G6. It's really a good device and LG missed on an opportunity here. Big time.

 

[delrey1900]

Wow, this thread really did get popular.

Here is my 2 cents. The fact that the G6 isn't popular doesn't bother me personally. It just means that I don't have a phone that everyone else does. I like to be different. With that said, lower sales does mean lower revenue and profit. As long as they don't stop making phones and being competitive.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Wow, this thread really did get popular.

Here is my 2 cents. The fact that the G6 isn't popular doesn't bother me personally. It just means that I don't have a phone that everyone else does. I like to be different. With that said, lower sales does mean lower revenue and profit. As long as they don't stop making phones and being competitive.

It's nice to be unique. But having had a ton of unique (AKA niche or phones that didn't sell well) phones before, the one thing they've all day in common was poor software support. The G6 seems to be off to a decent start because it's still new, but I hope LG doesn't drag their feet with software updates long term, especially for the unlocked customers.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

I think one of the other big mistakes with the G6 was this regional differentiation of the features in the G6. I wish the G6+ with 64GB of storage was the global model of the G6. I didn't mind them using the S821 chip at all, but they needed a more complete offering. It doesn't matter if people don't use all the features, but splitting things up regionally had the phone seem piecemeal. My guess it also kept production costs down when they did that.

 

[chriskwarren]

I have personally discouraged two people from buying a G6 because of bootlooping issues. I know so may people who had bootlooping devices, who don't frequent forums like this one. The G4 in particular, I don't know a single person who bought one that never had to get it fixed or bought a new one due to bootlooping.

I'm keeping an eye on this G6 forum, simply because the V30 is looking so appealing to me personally. But until I see a clean record with the G6 (and the first batch of V30s) I won't recommend the G6 to anyone.

 

[Mike Dee]

I have personally discouraged two people from buying a G6 because of bootlooping issues. I know so may people who had bootlooping devices, who don't frequent forums like this one. The G4 in particular, I don't know a single person who bought one that never had to get it fixed or bought a new one due to bootlooping.

I'm keeping an eye on this G6 forum, simply because the V30 is looking so appealing to me personally. But until I see a clean record with the G6 (and the first batch of V30s) I won't recommend the G6 to anyone.

There are very few cases of actual bootloop issues on both the G5 and V20 so the G6 should be safe.

 

[devaa]

G3 and G4 had bootloop issues i haven't seen yet G6 with bootloop problem..

 

[MSFTisMIA]

I have personally discouraged two people from buying a G6 because of bootlooping issues. I know so may people who had bootlooping devices, who don't frequent forums like this one. The G4 in particular, I don't know a single person who bought one that never had to get it fixed or bought a new one due to bootlooping.

I'm keeping an eye on this G6 forum, simply because the V30 is looking so appealing to me personally. But until I see a clean record with the G6 (and the first batch of V30s) I won't recommend the G6 to anyone.

I bought a G4 - the desired international mode! - had no bootloops. It happened to a smaller percentage of people but that had enough mindshare effect where some folks see LG = bootloops. Unfortunate, really.

While I understood where you are coming from, I'd never discourage someone from buying a product unless it's got a very common defect. There's no guarantee that everyone who buys a phone will get a perfect or defective unit. For me, if people like a phone and for my feedback, I'd lay out both sides and let then choose.

 

[chriskwarren]

I bought a G4 - the desired international mode! - had no bootloops. It happened to a smaller percentage of people but that had enough mindshare effect where some folks see LG = bootloops. Unfortunate, really.

While I understood where you are coming from, I'd never discourage someone from buying a product unless it's got a very common defect. There's no guarantee that everyone who buys a phone will get a perfect or defective unit. For me, if people like a phone and for my feedback, I'd lay out both sides and let then choose.

I understand that folks like us who hang out on tech forums will see threads on issues that might make us think the issue is more common than it is, I know friends, people at my work (and several from two dog parks I frequent) and not a single person has escaped the G4 bootlooping issue. Not one. A couple of people at the dog park in particular I asked about bootlooping, and they reported that they never saw anything like that, only to tell me later on that they did in fact experience it.

I'm guessing that the number would be around 10-12 folks total. Two people had the issue shortly after the 1 year warranty expired, and I had to coach them to escalate (one friends of mine I called LG on their behalf and talked to thee RMA rep on the phone). In each case, LG did actually repair the two phones outside of warranty free of charge, after we insisted and mentioned that the bootlooping is a known issue.