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Who stands to gain from LG’s smartphone exit?
Monday, April 5, 2021 4:02 pm

LG Electronics’ move to kill its failed smartphone business is expected to create more opportunities for Samsung than other companies in the North American smartphone market, analysts said.

Reuters:

LG’s U.S. market share currently stands at about 10%, research firms Gartner and Counterpoint estimated, adding it was stronger in markets where it partnered with telecom companies to include its devices as part of a mobile plan.

“Apple tends to cater to the higher end of the (U.S.) market; so it might grab a small portion of LG’s sales,” Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen said. “It’s more likely that Samsung inherits a lot of it because both vendors compete across similar markets.”

Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak said LG was mostly competing in the mid-tier, as its flagship phones received tepid market response. “So it will be mostly the Chinese and mid-tier brands benefiting through the LG exit.”

MacDailyNews Take: LG cobbled together mid- to low-end Android junk from off-the-rack parts with a third-party iPhone wannabe operating system, so, naturally, fellow South Korean dishwasher maker Samsung is the perfect candidate to take over the task of low-margin barrel scraping from LG.

As we wrote this morning, LG will do better going forward by concentrating on making components for real iPhones.

https://macdailynews.com/2021/04/05/who-stands-to-gain-from-lgs-smartphone-exit/