To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The fortunes of LG Mobile, the embattled and rather overshadowed rival to Samsung Mobile, have been on a downward trajectory for a long time.
As part of its effort to reform and optimize that business, LG is now taking the step of discontinuing smartphone manufacturing in its home country of South Korea. Raising prices, the other path to balancing the books, seems an unlikely strategy for success at the moment, with LG lagging behind Android phone rivals with better cameras, bigger batteries, and smoother performance. LG continues to occupy a privileged position as the third option after Apple and Samsung phones in most US carrier stores, and it enjoys a loyal following at home in Korea.
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Cybersecurity Mobile Policy Privacy Scooters. Phones Laptops Headphones Cameras. The letters "L" and "G" in a circle symbolize the world, future, youth, humanity, and technology. Our philosophy is based on Humanity. Also, it represents LG's efforts to keep close relationships with our customers around the world. Red, the main color, represents our friendliness, and also gives a strong impression of LG's commitment to deliver the best.
Therefore, the shape or the color of this symbol mark must never be changed. We have two versions of our logo : Corporate Logo and 3D Logo. The updated 3D Logo retains the heritage and equity of the Corporate Logo, while aligning with our new positioning.
It was redrawn to strengthen the visual impact of our symbol mark and help communicate our attributes. JavaScript appears to be disabled in your browser. Please enable JavaScript to ensure you get the most out of the LG site, products, and services. To properly experience our LG. This function is disables on your cookie management. That's no longer the case, with the phone business about to be shuttered. The following is the twist-filled tale of perennial second fiddle LG. Smartphones today employ a single, simple design -- a glass display encased in a rectangular slab made of plastic, glass or aluminum.
Looking for a little variety? The phone market in the early to mids was wilder, with flip phones, sliders, candy bar phones and even lipstick-shaped phones. Heck, there were candy bars that turned into flip phones. From a design perspective, it was glorious -- even if all you could do was send a text message and make a phone call.
Particularly robust phones could play MP3s. LG thrived in this environment after entering in And while the company was never a world-beater like Nokia or Motorola, steadily holding a single-digit slice of the global market for its first six years, it picked up steam in key markets like the US.
It was here that it boasted a strong double-digit share of the business thanks to relationships with carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint. LG enjoyed success with standout phones like the slide-out Shine and a myriad of flip phones featuring generic alphanumeric code names.
Then in , Motorola introduced the blockbuster Razr , quickly setting the standard on ultra-thin clamshells and threatening to kill any momentum built up by LG. The following year, LG had a response. It had spent a year working on a music phone it was literally dubbed "music phone" during its development when Chang Ma, then-head of mobile product and marketing, fixated on a catchier name for the candy bar-shaped handset.
The LG Chocolate was born. LG executives credit the Chocolate for helping keep the Razr momentum at bay and sustaining its growth during those early years, and at least one CNET editor still looks upon this classic dumb phone with nostalgic bliss. As the decade went on, LG found further success with so-called "quick-messaging devices," which featured full keyboards for easier texting, a sort of precursor to smartphones. Hong-Joo Kim, another LG executive who previously worked on the mobile team, called that stretch "the glory years" for its feature phones.
It was , and smartphones were still a luxurious novelty despite the appearance of the iPhone and Google's first Android phone, the G1 from HTC. Android was even more of a niche thing. LG's feature phone business, meanwhile, had peaked at a tenth of the world's market for phones, according to Statista.
Publicly, the company expressed confidence, but privately, executives knew they were behind. That year, its heavy hitter was the enV Touch, a large for its time candy bar phone with a 3-inch touchscreen that unfolded to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, dual speakers and a smaller inner screen. Verizon pumped it up as a potential rival to the iPhone with its basic games and rudimentary web browser. The difference would be starkly felt just a few months later when Verizon shifted gears to its next flagship, the Motorola Droid, which debuted in October It wasn't until August of the following year that LG put its foot to the pedal, promising a blitz of 10 Android smartphones and a tablet under the "Optimus" brand to close out Samsung, meanwhile, had embarked on its own mission to take control of the smartphone market with the launch of its Galaxy S franchise and a massive marketing blitz comparable to the Verizon Droid campaign.
LG, perennially in Samsung's shadow, lacked the same marketing firepower despite a flood of products.
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