The smartphone business is ruthless. Many companies that dominated the game at one point are now nowhere to be found. Only those that have relentlessly innovated and managed to capture the essence of what the market requires have survived.
LG was once one of Samsung's biggest Korean rivals in the smartphone market. Yet, it's slipped into obscurity and has now taken the last step that marks the end of its journey in a business that Samsung now dominates.
Samsung has demonstrated incredible staying power in the market
Back in the mid to late 2000s it felt as if companies like Nokia, HTC, LG, BlackBerry, and many others were too big to fail. They made great devices, experimented with new ideas, and were fiercely competitive.
Yet somewhere along the way as the transition began toward the device form factors that are ubiquitous today, they lost the plot and got left behind. The acquisition of Nokia's smartphone business by Microsoft turned out to be a disaster, BlackBerry never really found its footing despite pivoting to become an Android OEMs, and HTC just faded into oblivion.
Even as Samsung grew to define South Korean dominance in the smartphone market, LG just couldn't keep up. It ultimately decided to completely exit the smartphone business in July 2021. Its phones had become scarce in most parts of the world by then, but it did still have some presence in South Korea.
LG has now stopped providing any support for its devices. It will no longer supply new spare parts, software updates, or provide any after-sales service such as repairs through official channels. This may prove to be of little nuisance to LG phone owners in the country which only account for a 1% of the entire domestic market. Most, if not all, will ultimately find their way to a Samsung Galaxy phone.
The post Samsung’s last major Korean rival completely bows out of the smartphone game appeared first on SamMobile.
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