General LG seems done trying to compete in the android market.

[Bodhitree]

It's not Apple, it's Samsung who will have free reign on high end Android. With Huawei gone, your only choice for Android flagship is basically just Samsung. Thus Samsung is not breaking any sweat copying Apple like removing charger, etc. They know they have no peers on the high end.

Depends where you are. A lot of my friends are OnePlus fans, stating that you can get the equivalent of a Samsung flagship phone from them for €200 less.

 

[macdogpro]

Maybe Google should buy LG mobile division and use their hardware to make Pixel phones (again).
LG Nexus 4 and 5 were great phones.
My parents’ LG Q6+ also still runs fine after 4 years.

 

[tbayrgs]

LG is no longer selling Android smartphones.

Luckily... the following manufacturers still are:

Samsung
Huawei
Xiaomi
Oppo
Vivo
Motorola
Realme
Tecno mobile limited
Infinix mobility limited
Amlogic
Sony
Hmd global
Asus
Lenovo
OnePlus
ZTE
Alcatel
Itel
and so on...

The problem with that list in the USA though is that we see phones from just a couple of those OEMs but overwhelmingly from Samsung. After OnePlus, Google, and maybe Motorola, that’s about it. And those 3 barely have any shelf space as it is.

 

[slitherjef]

... and if you like photography, then it's basically samsung or Apple or pixel. Just who is google going to use to manufacture pixels now? ?

 

[Michael Scrip]

The problem with that list in the USA though is that we see phones from just a couple of those OEMs but overwhelmingly from Samsung. After OnePlus, Google, and maybe Motorola, that’s about it. And those 3 barely have any shelf space as it is.

That's true... in the USA.

The list was worldwide... you know... when people love to brag about Android's 85% market share...

You're right though. The loss of LG will reduce the number of phones in the US. But honestly... LG couldn't really compete with Samsung, could they?

So how much longer did you expect LG to keep pouring money into products that they can't make money on?

 

[cuzo]

Oh couldn’t compete with Samsung but lg when they did the dual screen I think they made a cheaper just as viable option from Samsung’s fold. They added the second screen for a price which made sense for people who don’t have fold money and the option to take off the screen makes sense for the lighter weight.

I think it could have hurt tablet sales if it was properly pushed but America’s love for public perception is everything I think lg was pretty influential on the industry. At least they tried.

 

[tbayrgs]

That's true... in the USA.

The list was worldwide... you know... when people love to brag about Android's 85% market share...

You're right though. The loss of LG will reduce the number of phones in the US. But honestly... LG couldn't really compete with Samsung, could they?

So how much longer did you expect LG to keep pouring money into products that they can't make money on?

Oh I don’t disagree. LG’s smartphone presence in the US was predominantly in the budget phone segment. Their absence will just be filled by some other OEM already making similar devices, most likely Motorola as they already are the most common alternative.

I was only chiming in to reiterate as others have said that in the US, it’s pretty much iPhone and Samsung. If I happened to see anyone using anything else, it was usually a bargain basement LG phone that carriers basically are giving away.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Seriously though ZTE still exists? The last phone I remember from that company seen anywhere near me was the Z-Five C LTE (2017). Thought they EOLd.

Kinda sad since it was the only maker still checking all my boxes:

1. Notification LED
2. plastic build
3. decent size screen but not too big
4. decent UI design
5. expandable storage
6. headphone jack
7. removable battery
8. micro-USB charging (I don't know what problem Type-C is trying to solve but I hate it)

 

[Tsepz]

Maybe Google should buy LG mobile division and use their hardware to make Pixel phones (again).
LG Nexus 4 and 5 were great phones.
My parents’ LG Q6+ also still runs fine after 4 years.

Lol, how many more mobile companies must Google buy? They bought Motorola (mostly for patents) and it didn’t workout well and sold it and then bought HTC, both times it doesn’t seem to have really worked out, very expensive exercise to.

I think Google if they wanted to could make the HTC hardware business they bought a few years ago work well if they wanted to, but they don’t seem to be focused on making Pixel dominant or profitable, maybe it’s a tax thing? Who knows.

 

[akash.nu]

This only means less competition which leads to more stagnation. Competition inspires innovation. Now we're left with what now? Two mobile OSs? Android or iOS? Now it's Samsung, Pixel, and Apple in the U.S.?

I miss the days of WebOS, Windows Phone, Symbian, Android, Blackberries, Nokias, HTCs, LGs, Motos, Apple, etc. Things were certainly a lot more interesting and far more variety existed in 2010-11. 2020-21 is such a homogenized, stagnating flat UI mess.

I call it getting matured. That time was the exploring age where companies were trying to figure out what to do and what will work. Now we have matured to the point where we know what works and what the population want.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Seriously though ZTE still exists? The last phone I remember from that company seen anywhere near me was the Z-Five C LTE (2017). Thought they EOLd.

Kinda sad since it was the only maker still checking all my boxes:

1. Notification LED
2. plastic build
3. decent size screen but not too big
4. decent UI design
5. expandable storage
6. headphone jack
7. removable battery
8. micro-USB charging (I don't know what problem Type-C is trying to solve but I hate it)

IR blaster?

 

[ian87w]

... and if you like photography, then it's basically samsung or Apple or pixel. Just who is google going to use to manufacture pixels now? ?

I thought Google already had HTC for that.

 

[MarkX]

Seriously though ZTE still exists? The last phone I remember from that company seen anywhere near me was the Z-Five C LTE (2017). Thought they EOLd.

Kinda sad since it was the only maker still checking all my boxes:

1. Notification LED
2. plastic build
3. decent size screen but not too big
4. decent UI design
5. expandable storage
6. headphone jack
7. removable battery
8. micro-USB charging (I don't know what problem Type-C is trying to solve but I hate it)

I can just about accept your takes on points 1 - 7, but point 8 I can't get my head round.

In what way is micro USB better than USB C? Other than having to replace cables which is mildly annoying USB C is by far the better solution.

You really don't like change do you!

 

[macdogpro]

Lol, how many more mobile companies must Google buy? They bought Motorola (mostly for patents) and it didn’t workout well and sold it and then bought HTC, both times it doesn’t seem to have really worked out, very expensive exercise to.

I think Google if they wanted to could make the HTC hardware business they bought a few years ago work well if they wanted to, but they don’t seem to be focused on making Pixel dominant or profitable, maybe it’s a tax thing? Who knows.

Haha true, it’s almost like they bought it to kill them ?
Nexus 6 from Motorola was a fine phone though.
We’ll see if making their own silicone will actually make a difference for the whole product.

 

[ian87w]

Lol, how many more mobile companies must Google buy? They bought Motorola (mostly for patents) and it didn’t workout well and sold it and then bought HTC, both times it doesn’t seem to have really worked out, very expensive exercise to.

I think Google if they wanted to could make the HTC hardware business they bought a few years ago work well if they wanted to, but they don’t seem to be focused on making Pixel dominant or profitable, maybe it’s a tax thing? Who knows.

Google is an advertising company, not a hardware company. Thus they will never have a focus on hardware.

 

[Awesomesince86]

Google is an advertising company, not a hardware company. Thus they will never have a focus on hardware.

Advertising company? Nah, they are a data collection company.

 

[ian87w]

Advertising company? Nah, they are a data collection company.

Tomato tomāto ?

 

[nickdalzell1]

I can just about accept your takes on points 1 - 7, but point 8 I can't get my head round.

In what way is micro USB better than USB C? Other than having to replace cables which is mildly annoying USB C is by far the better solution.

You really don't like change do you!

It's more to do with it being change for the sake of change. And replacing all my cables to match or worse, dealing with the fragmentation of keeping both Type-C and Micro-USB lying around.

Plus, I bought some very neat LED strip Micro-USB cables and none of the Type-C are made that way. They're just unique.

Also, Type-C doesn't always work. The standards aren't there yet. Plugged in my Mac's Type-C power brick into a tablet and it went POW! and emitted smoke. The cables were the same but the power and pinouts are very different. None of that happened with Micro USB. Plus, I didn't have any issue plugging it in the correct way either. Type-C is just more idiot proofing for the lazy. Also, many times when I do plug the correct cable in to the correct device, it doesn't charge the first time, making me plug it in again and again until it works, and one phone (Galaxy A01) would charge so far and just stop. Like you'd plug it in at 37% charge, and wake up the next day, and it's at 48% and 'not charging'.

Micro-USB wasn't broken. Once again Type-C is a solution in search of a problem.

Still think newer is always better?