LG leaving Android isn't good for anyone — except LG

Authored by androidcentral.com and submitted by CrossKnight741
image for LG leaving Android isn't good for anyone — except LG

We're an Android site, and collectively we know everything there is to know about Android. Yes, that's a pretty big and bold claim, but it's true. Just because we aren't writing every little technical thing and look at the bigger picture doesn't mean we don't understand all the technical little things. We're also a mobile site and not afraid to talk about the phone everyone seems to love to hate: the iPhone. You can't talk about the imminent death of LG's mobile division without talking about mobile as a whole. "Mobile" has a lot of companies, but there are only three making all the money. Mobile as a category of consumer tech is weird. The three companies that own all the mindshare and make all the profits are Apple, Google, and Samsung. Google enjoys making all of its money from the shadows, but if you want to grab your credit card and head out the door to buy the best smartphone you can buy today, please make sure you are buying some variant of a Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12. That's some advice from Android Central, a company that makes all of its profit from looking at every phone and evaluating how they do the things that Apple and Samsung tell you the best smartphone needs to do. But what if you don't care about having the best phone on the market and just need a good phone? We have an entire Android phone buyer's "bible" where we evaluate everything from phones to VPN software to accessories that matter. Once you're done reading it, chances are you will just get the cheapest one on Amazon that has good ratings, which is probably made by Motorola. There are plenty of other phones out there that are great. Google makes some, OnePlus makes some, other Chinese brands that you aren't familiar with make some, too. However, none of that matters when it comes to the actual buying part because the average consumer will buy a phone from Samsung, Apple, or Motorola.

That's a tough field to play in, and LG sees it. It looks like LG is also done with trying to be part of it, and I can't blame the company one bit. LG as a phone manufacturer cannot compete in today's market unless it is satisfied with losing money at an alarming level. Some companies are OK with hemorrhaging cash in today's mobile market for one reason or another. Google loves to spend money on its Pixel vanity project. Yes, I said it. Fight me. OnePlus can lose money in one division and make up the losses through other parts of the company by offering unique accessories that every OnePlus phone buyer wants. When you make the best television on the market, you make a lot of money from selling them. LG could go this route because the cash it makes on things like smart TVs or smart washing machines or smart soundbars can easily bolster its smartphone division, but it just makes more sense to jettison that smartphone division and keep working on ThinQ products that work inside the ecosystems that sell well, like the ones Google and Apple offer. A phone like the LG Wing may be a novel idea, but the reality is that it's also an anchor. LG just doesn't need that dead weight.

GL4389 on January 24th, 2021 at 06:49 UTC »

OG Motorola dead, LG leaving, HTC in coma, Sony on a Stretcher . End of an era.

ABotelho23 on January 24th, 2021 at 06:27 UTC »

LG was one of those OEMs that I really wanted to love. I was really hoping that they would get their shit together.

MoeNopoly on January 24th, 2021 at 06:11 UTC »

i have very fond memories of my LG G4 and my G Flex 2. i still love the bend design of them.

LG always tried to think outside the box and made smartphones fun this way.