LG Halts Phone Manufacturing In South Korea For 2019, Relocating To Vietnam (cnet.com) 40
LG, the South Korean electronics and phone company, is relocating their mobile production facility in South Korea for the year, and focusing instead on one of its plants in Haiphong, Vietnam. CNET reports: Though LG overall is profiting, its mobile division posted a $172 million loss in the second quarter of 2018. And while smartphone sales are down globally, things are especially difficult for LG. Its last couple of flagship phones didn't take off, and it still must compete against bigger companies like Samsung, Huawei and Apple, too. With the relocation, the company does not plan to downsize its phone business, however. The move is to make LG "much more competitive for the global market," said LG senior director of global corporate communications Ken Hong. "Korea will continue to be the hub for smartphone R&D, design, quality assurance, etc." As reported by Reuters, the factory in South Korea mostly makes premium phone models, which would include devices like the LG G8 ThinQ or the upcoming V50 ThinQ, and manufactures about 10% to 20% of LG's total smartphones. In addition to South Korea and Vietnam, the company also has factories in China, Brazil and India.
LG have only themselves to blame, crappy marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
Though LG overall is profiting, its mobile division posted a $172 million loss in the second quarter of 2018. And while smartphone sales are down globally, things are especially difficult for LG. Its last couple of flagship phones didn't take off, and it still must compete against bigger companies like Samsung, Huawei and Apple, too.
When they released the LGV30, myself and a couple of friends really wanted to buy this phone. We could not. We tried...headquarters in my country of residence, website...we failed.
Think about is: Someone trying to give you money - you decline to take it!!
I emailed them to sell it to me even without support. They refused/or could not. I gave up on this company. Their situation serves them right.
Later, they could only sell to me through a carrier and on contract! I do not do contracts. NEVER! I still could not buy their phones.
Younger companies like OnePlus get it. No wonder they seem to be in a better position.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Coincidentally Linus Tech Tips just tested out a 5 year old LG G3: https://youtu.be/BZSIVQp4GIA [youtu.be]
They compared it to a 5 year old iPhone 6. Apple is famous for supporting old devices for a long time. They installed Lineage on the G3 and it was actually pretty damn good. Decent performance even in games like PUBG, replacement batteries are cheap and easy to fit, headphone socket, and it runs a modern version of Android.
Best of all it was $70 for a pretty much mint one off eBay.
My wife uses a 5 year old OnePlus
Re: (Score:2)
TVs are just not devices that should be trusted with any Internet connection, they are known to abuse such by default.
Translation: Cheaper work - more profit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Translation: Cheaper work - more profit (Score:2)
It is more moral to pay the person willing to work for less. The guy demanding a higher wage probably has better options than the guy desperate for work and probably wonâ(TM)t starve as bad as the guy willing to work for less.
Re: (Score:1)
Is LG going to hire a Vietnamese CEO that can do the work just as well for half as much (or less)? No? Why not?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, the cost of labor in Vietnam is less than it is in Korea. But, surprise, so is the cost of living. The same thing happened to Japan many years ago...are they whining about it? The same thing is starting to happen to China, which is why I'm not worried about them taking over the world. There will always be someplace that has less expensive labor, so until full on robotic manufacturing is building all of our crap, this will continue.
By the way, LG is moving the 750 Korean workers to their appliance
mobile division posting loss (Score:2)
They've designed and built a whole bunch of bad phones. A device bootlooping and becoming unusable only gives you negative press.
Re: (Score:2)
And by moving the production of these bad phones to Vietnam, somehow they will become good phones!
No wait, they're still unremarkable in every way, even when they work as designed. If LG would like to have a profitable mobile phone unit, they should probably figure out how to make a phone that is actually distinguishable from any other midrange phone on the market that costs less. Even some of the midrange manufacturers are reaching up into "flagship" territory with this year's products that make the LG s
Re: (Score:2)
I bought Google's phone made by LG. I stopped working after 1 month. I sent it back for repair twice, and both times they claimed to fix the screen, which never had an issue, and I told them that.
The phone was literally garbage.
If you want a good cheap phone, go with Moto. Not perfect, but cheap and they work.
Since I usually buy the best low-end or mid-range phone I can get, I just happen to have had mostly LG phones for the last few years. LG Venice, LG Optimus F6, LG Stylo, then switched to ZTE for a couple years, then back to LG with V20, and now have a V30. I haven't had any problems with any of these phones. All companies make a dud or lemon here or there. Trashing all of a company's products because you had one bad experience is simply ridiculous.
That said, the S10 makes me wet and I am ditching LG for Sam
Re: (Score:2)
Haha I can't go back to plugging a phone in to charge it. I don't plug my phone into anything for anything ever anymore. Everything is wireless. I have a wireless charger at the office, at home, and even my car mount is a wireless charger. S10 still on top.
Cost of a wage (Score:2)
Until then its humans. Human wages are an expensive cost in China, South Korea.
Need low wages try Vietnam until the robots are ready.
Same product. Lower wages. Later the robots are ready for the production line.
Robots vs People (Score:2)
Those many new robots need to be supported, by many cheaper technicians. A qualified technician in Vietnam/China probably earns more than a line worker in Korea. But not nearly as much as a technician in Korea.
And where do you install the robots? In the factories where the cheap labor is. So where do you develop robot skills? In those places. And that is where you end up developing new robots.
This is already happening in China to some extent.
I tell kids that the future for western countries is not man
Re: (Score:2)
No company will buy robots that need constant service calls that shut production lines down.
The robots will make goods 24/7 and not need a many humans, skilled or unskilled humans.
The idea is to get the wage costs down. Not to add a layer of expensive "technicians".
The next change with robots with be production line part size. No human will be able to work with the size of the next gen smaller size parts on a production line.
Re: Robots vs People (Score:2)
You are certainly right. An experienced machinist takes home 15000 CNY a month in Shenzhen, more than a lot of metalworkers in US.
Robot programmers in big factories are stable above 25000 CNY
Re: (Score:2)
"Robots for the production lines are going to be ready soon. ....until the robots are ready. ...Later the robots are ready for the production line."
You seem to have a severe case of robotics, you should see a mechanic.
Go where it is cheap (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"- government intervention to support corporation and suppress union , checked
- Support of jungle rules economy , checked
- Eliminate government roles on social-responsibilities , checked.
- Central bank to manipulate monetary policies, checked"
Mmh, are you talking about the US or Vietnam?