Top Korean phone brand quits the market — here's why

The LG company has ceased all remaining operations related to its smartphones, finally putting an end to its battle with Samsung in the domestic market. From now on, owners of LG devices will no longer receive updates, spare parts, or official service.

SamMobile writes about it.

From peak to complete withdrawal of support

The smartphone market is known for its ruthless competition: only those who continuously improve their products and have a keen sense of consumer needs survive. LG once rivaled Samsung in South Korea, but gradually lost ground and eventually took the final step that ended its history in this industry.

At the turn of the 2000s, it seemed that Nokia, HTC, LG, BlackBerry, and other giants were "too big to fail": they released bold new products and competed fiercely. But with the change in form factor that has become commonplace today, most of them have left the stage. Microsoft's deal with Nokia turned out to be a failure, BlackBerry was unable to gain a foothold among Android manufacturers, and HTC almost disappeared from the radar.

Despite Samsung's dominance, LG was still afloat, but in July 2021, it announced its exit from the smartphone business. At that time, the brand's phones were already rare on the global market, although it still had a certain presence in South Korea.

Now, LG has finally stopped supporting its devices: it will not supply spare parts, release software updates, or repair them at its service centers. In Korea, owners of such phones account for only about 1% of the market, so most of them will likely switch to Samsung Galaxy devices.

As a reminder, Samsung smartphones are traditionally positioned as more expensive than most Chinese counterparts, even in the affordable segment. Some users consider this to be overpaying for the brand, but in reality, the price includes long-term support, the company's own developments, and reputation.

We also wrote that, despite the revolutionary impact of smartphones on everyday life, history remembers many failed models. Some of them became examples of technical errors or flawed strategies that cost manufacturers millions.