LG Electronics marked 7th ranking in terms of global shipments in the 4th quarter of the last year. LG kept saying that “Since it’s difficult to catch Apple and Samsung soon, let's keep a solid 3rd position first and watch for an opportunity." How did LG’s ranking nosedive to 7th place?
Since Apple and Samsung maintains huge gap with next group, we need to focus on the gap between LG and Chinese companies.
Huawei ranked 3rd with 41M, followed by Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo with 32M, 31M and 24.5M, and LG recorded 13.9M. Lenovo who absorbed Motorola recently is catching up with LG. The bigger problem is that these companies are the 'Chinese companies'.
Last year, Chinese smartphone shipments declined 4% YoY to about 460mn units, but still account for one-third of global smartphone shipments. In other words, once Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo decide to focus on China domestic market aggressively, LG Electronics are no longer their rival any more.
[LG’s glorious history - Feature phone]
Nowadays, the younger generation, especially teens, think that LG is not good at making mobile phone from the beginning. In a nutshell, there are not many friends who do not even know whether LG is doing a mobile phone business. (Indeed)
However, there was a time when LG does mobile business right. Once the line-up was so good, designs and marketing drove consumers crazy.
Before Apple's iPhone appeared in 2007, there was an age of feature phones. Unlike smart phone which equipped with an operating system (OS) and various applications, feature phone only provided basic functions such as call and text. So they have to differentiate in terms of design, materials. LG showed a brilliant strategy at that time.
Let’s have a brief look at the lineup at that time. It’s a sensation with the release of Chocolate (2006), Shine (2007), Secret (2008) and New Chocolate (2009) in the 'Black Label' series. It was truly the Renaissance era of LG Electronics including naming and marketing as well.
In addition to the 'Black Label' series, there were super premium 'Prada Phone', teens targeted 'Lollipop, Ice Cream, Candy Phone' and elderly targeted 'Wine Phone'. In fact, consumers of all groups had to choose one of LG phones at the time. What a beautiful line-up?
Since 'Black label' centered on, the other line-up expansion was possible. LG 'G series' should have played its role, but it failed. In the end, any of LG smartphone brand did not play a central role, as the initial 'LG Optimus' brand disappeared, and both' G series' and 'V series' are likely to disappear.
But I think LG might not have tasted the failure, if they looked back a little while to see why the 'Black label' was so successful.
If LG leaves its designs to professional designers like Chocolate phone, G4 with old fashioned leather case and G5 with protruded cameras could never been launched. I believe that these filthy designs only possible when 50s-60s old executives make the final decision.
Even Shine phone, which has already been launched for more than a decade, boasted "It's real metal now." However, LG G series used real metal materials only with G6. To be honest, the G5 is not a 'metal' that we usually refer to from the naked eye.
Secret phone said, "Threw a glass for a thousand times." I wonder if such a gap between modular battery and body would have occurred even though LG had put the G5's modular battery in and out a thousand times. Even considering G4 and G5 adapted the new tech, the quality of those was so bad as to threaten the entire LG smartphone business.
I reviewed the current status of LG smartphone and the past glory days of LG's feature phones. As seen in the 'Black Label' series, LG is a company with excellent DNA and competence. Looking back on past successes, I hope that the DNA may come alive again.