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LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

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Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#51

Post by e-clinton »

toiletfuneral wrote: post #18
[deleted] wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Honest question, who are the people who need more chargers? Definitely being anecdotal but everyone in my circle is drowning in generations of random usb adaptors, myself included. I’ve been very supportive of removing wasteful redundancy but again, this is subjective

I now have tons of USB C to lightening cables laying around the house with nothing to plug them into. So I either have to go buy USB C chargers or toss what I have. While the idea was a good one, the execution has been complete BS

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#52

Post by Exmoor »

unreal6 wrote: post #24
zozin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're obsessed with making money. No 3.5mm means you're more likely to buy bluetooth earbuds. No SD? Cloud services. Battery? You'll get a new phone after 18-24 months. No charger? Wireless charging pad. Apple can "get away" with it because to a lot of people it's a luxury/lifestyle brand. Android vendors copy them because they want to create new revenue streams by removing features/out of nothing too!

Then why wasn't there massive commercial success for the phones that kept these features, like a headphone jack an SD card? Samsung tried to market it for a few years, but eventually surrendered to the same trends like the rest of the market. If this was really so bad for consumers, they would've chosen the alternatives that were available at the time.

I'll be interested to see what happens with Samsung's decision to drop SD. They did that once before with the Galaxy S6 and brought it right back with the S7 after disappointing sales. Personally, I just purchased a Note20 Ultra (at a heavy discount) because it looks like it might be the last phone with microSD that gets long term updates. In theory they sell phones with larger amounts of storage, but they rarely seem to drop below MSRP or are always out of stock if they do.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#53

Post by rektide »

klondike_ wrote: post #5

What happened to the Android phone ecosystem? Android phones used to offer unique and useful features like removable batteries, headphone jacks, IR blasters, SD cards, etc. Now it seems that Samsung and Google are obsessed with copying whatever Apple does, even their controversial decisions like removing the headphone jack, even after making fun of Apple for doing it. No thanks, why would I buy a shittier iPhone with…

LG V20 is a fantastic phone. It feels so much better than every other device I've ever owned. Space-age frame with such core ruggedness, great screen, great for it's day camera, sd card, sweet audio.

And! And! Someone managed to unlock the bootloader. So there's a variety of decent roms one can run on it. All aging now, a little bit too old at this point, but this 2016 device was swinging mightily until it became utterly bereft & unsupportable.

It's just so pathetic that we rely on these shitty ass vendor OSes. The v20 is a case study in how amazingly awesome devices are when consumers have any right what-so-ever to maintain & work with their devices. By hook here! One uses the "dirty santa" exploit (with pixelated santa junk) to unlock the blasted thing. And with that it is a semi-modern, loveable device. By community effort. By contributor effort. No thanks to Google nor LG.

But modern phones are more impervious. This 2016 device is one of the last devices that (unintentionally) allowed access. After this, everything slid downhill. Everything went to shit. Android collapsed into a pitiful shitmound. Libre was squeezed out. Consumerism & obsolescence are enforced in firmware now, almost ubiquotously. What a pathetic trash heap Android is. John Deere tractors have nothing on the disposable technology that Android levers against it's users. It's a vile situation. Unlock the bootloaders you frigging jerkwads. This is hell you perpetuate against your users! Stop this madness.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#54

Post by cerved »

zozin wrote: post #15
klondike_ wrote: post #5

What happened to the Android phone ecosystem? Android phones used to offer unique and useful features like removable batteries, headphone jacks, IR blasters, SD cards, etc. Now it seems that Samsung and Google are obsessed with copying whatever Apple does, even their controversial decisions like removing the headphone jack, even after making fun of Apple for doing it. No thanks, why would I buy a shittier iPhone with…

They're obsessed with making money. No 3.5mm means you're more likely to buy bluetooth earbuds. No SD? Cloud services. Battery? You'll get a new phone after 18-24 months. No charger? Wireless charging pad. Apple can "get away" with it because to a lot of people it's a luxury/lifestyle brand. Android vendors copy them because they want to create new revenue streams by removing features/out of nothing too!

they make money because the product sells and as others have pointed out, these features have advantages and most consumers appear to appreciate them or not care about them

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#55

Post by ehsankia »

shp0ngle wrote: post #31
klondike_ wrote: post #5

What happened to the Android phone ecosystem? Android phones used to offer unique and useful features like removable batteries, headphone jacks, IR blasters, SD cards, etc. Now it seems that Samsung and Google are obsessed with copying whatever Apple does, even their controversial decisions like removing the headphone jack, even after making fun of Apple for doing it. No thanks, why would I buy a shittier iPhone with…

There is lots of weird Android stuff on AliExpress.

You don't even need to go that far.

- ASUS is on it's 5th? gaming focused phone (with attachable fan and all) [1]

- You have folding, flipping and stretching [2] phones

- You still have plenty of great niche hardware keyboard phones [3]

The issue is that these mostly fill niches, as the majority of people are happy enough having the a clean simple phone.

[1] https://rog.asus.com/phones/rog-phone-model/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF-Hfzntue0

[3] https://www.fxtec.com/

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#56

Post by Semaphor »

pookieinc wrote: post #22

Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recognize that it’s easier and faster to iterate to just use Android with some sprinkles on top, but even if it meant spending 4-5 years developing it, the potential market share is absolutely massive. I can see the first year or two would not be great since app deve…

Just to expand on Windows Mobile: For the problems it had (probably the biggest was trying to enter a duopoly), I have yet to hear of anyone who had one who didn’t like it. I never used one, but those who did seem to have liked it better than iOS and Android.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#58

Post by jbay808 »

bmitc wrote: post #43
selimthegrim wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is Sony doing these days?

Making excellent phones that are ignored, like LG was doing.

Exactly this! I find it bewildering -- they're by far the best in every respect that matters to me, and yet most people I meet are surprised to hear that Sony even makes phones, even when they express interest in mine. SD card, excellent camera, waterproof, durable, excellent battery life, headphone jack, quick, mostly vanilla Android OS, and most of all, the smallest form factor that I can still find in a phone.

Their branding is terrible though. Their naming scheme is without any pattern, making it hard to tell which phones are their budget/flagship/new/old models, and so on. And they're hard to even get at all in Canada.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#59

Post by xpressvideoz »

bogwog wrote: post #23
qmarchi wrote: post #2

I can't really blame them. Ever since the LG G4, they haven't really been relevant, which is unfortunate. They have the capability to experiment outside of the box, like the Wing, but a business is a business. RIP LG Mobile.

I'm still amazed at how well the LG G3 holds up today (with custom roms). That era of LG phones was great. It's too bad that they started to concentrate all their efforts on coming up with the dumbest gimmicks possible (like that ridiculous second screen on the V20) Sometimes it seems like Apple owes much of its success to the bizarre fact that all their competitors are completely incompetent.

I think you and the GP are disagreeing with each other. You are criticizing LG's gimmicky adventurous choices, which are the exact reasons why the GP liked LG.

Re: LG is getting out of the mobile phone business

#60

Post by xpressvideoz »

throwbacktictac wrote: post #49
pookieinc wrote: post #22

Can someone enlighten me on why manufacturers who have experience with software, such as Microsoft, don’t create their own OS for their mobile phones? I recognize that it’s easier and faster to iterate to just use Android with some sprinkles on top, but even if it meant spending 4-5 years developing it, the potential market share is absolutely massive. I can see the first year or two would not be great since app deve…

I believe Hauwei is being forced to develop their own OS due to the threat of US sanctions. However, I think it'd be a losing battle to try to steal enough market share of IOS/Android. They'd simply copy (or one up) your competitive advantage leaving you little room to compete.

IIRC Huawei's OS is just a rebranded Android.
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