LG are one of the leading brands when it comes to innovation. Televisions, fridge freezers, washing machines you name it, LG thrives in a lot of appliance technology. So that begs the question. Why did it flop so much when it came to the task of being up to date with Smartphones? Just like most departments that are dominated by major brands, LG constantly failed to keep up to date with the likes of Apple and Samsung. In 2021, LG announced that they would officially depart from the smartphone business, and the news did not come as a surprise to industry watchers. In addition, their smartphone division caused losses of up to $4.5 billion in just five years before this announcement. Despite this, LG in its time did produce some great smartphones for its time and some of which are memorable. Let's take a look in-depth for the exact reasons why LG decided to move away from mobile phones.

The Competition

With any market, the competition is always dominated by mostly two front runners with others just slightly lagging. It's no surprise that Apple and Samsung are the two giants in the smartphone market, with others constantly trying to compete. Whilst in some aspects, Google, Huawei and Xiaomi have their expectations and outcomes, LG could never really have hoped to keep any momentum, if they had any in the first place, to even try and throw one's hat in the ring. Brands like Blackberry and HTC were in similar boats, and started well but then fell flat on their faces. Even though LG and Samsung are very similar in what they sell, LG still had to try and make their prices cheaper than Samsung in their smartphone market to have any chance of being more popular. In short, they just simply weren't. With this factor, it shunned the brand's image as being top of the range, so everyone sort of saw LG smartphones as budget phones with actual little worth and that wasn't actually in budget. So it was physically caught in the middle, not quite spectacular enough to compete with Apple and Samsung, but not cheap enough to justify choosing them over Huawei or Xiaomi.

Lacking Finesse

Credit: LG

LG was very open to experimenting with new designs and features that seemed to be their own crazy creations that would set them apart from the rest. The only issue was that whilst the ideas were great, the flair or spark wasn't. Take the LG Wing as a prime example, which was a mobile phone with a second screen on a swivel. When opened, it formed a "T" shape with the second screen perpendicular to the standard vertical one. Though the idea sounded great, the actual feature had barely any practicality and was also priced very high. Whilst you can be great at showing ideas of innovation and that is most definitely a good thing, innovation without actual finesse and a thought process can doom any efforts you showed. This is ultimately what happened with LG.

Software Issues

Credit: LG

With the other two factors are considered, it was LG's software issues that killed any chances of LG stepping on the podium. The issues with their smartphone software were the knockout blow. Sadly, there isn't much praise that can be said in this category because the software ran woefully on most LG smartphones. Whilst the main playmakers continuously work to improve the software experience for their users with new features and quality-of-life mechanisms, LG never really grasped on how much software mattered. Of course, with budget phones, the software will never be on the level as the flagship, but when it barely functions, there's simply no excuse for a lacklustre user interface. Unfortunately, LG never learned this lesson and that was why it ultimately failed.

Were There Any Good LG Smartphones?

Credit: LG

The answer to this question is yes, it wasn't all a failure, LG's early venture into the smartphone market was quite a success, and some of the features LG first introduced are what have revolutionised what we see today. The LG Prada was officially the first-ever touchscreen phone and the G6 was the first ever phone to have a 2:1 aspect ratio, which is pretty much the standard for smartphones now. Its collaboration with Google to produce the Nexus series, and this instance specific reference to the Nexus 4, was the one time that LG challenged the brands at the top with it offering wireless charging, NFC and a premium design and feel. This would only cost £249 in the UK too, so whilst the brand's reputation declined, it still has some sort of legacy to be remembered for, so it can't be picked apart completely. Will LG ever make a comeback to the smartphone market, I doubt it. Sometimes the best practices are to stick to what you know best. Whilst other mobile phone brands have completely died out and never been revived, LG has its other flagship appliances that it can fall back on. Despite the setback, LG is still thriving across many technological advancements, and even has plans to transmit and receive 6G data.

Did you ever own an LG smartphone? Let us know down below and if you ever had any of these problems or if you actually enjoyed using your LG device.