LG Moves Away From WP; Probably Won’t Be Missed
You may or may not be aware of this but LG actually has two WPs out there, released all the way back in 2010 the Optimus 7 and Quantum are their only current (and seemingly future) contributions to the OS. Earlier today during an Android event their CEO (Park Jong) went on record stating that they had: ”no specific plans for other mobile platforms (besides android)”. I haven’t been following LG very closely but I assume that they are at the very best “struggling”, having cast the majority of its lot into Google’s platform seems to have backfired a bit; yet they insist on sticking to the platform due to LTE & UI patents involving Android.
Has Android really become a show for only the “big dogs”? HTC (who own the second best selling Android smart selling smartphone- the One X) are also undergoing serious sales problems competing in that realm (hence the rumored strong “reappearance” with WP8). At this point it seems Android has become synonymous with Samsung just as much as Symbian was to Nokia in its final days (before being fully acquired by Nokia).
LG were never really dedicated to the WP platform, and never truly tried pursuing a proper foothold in the OS; not releasing a single phone ever since the initial launch (they never released a WP 7.5 device, only 7.0 that were later updated). As of now only 7% of Windows Phones run on an LG device (keep in mind that they were with WP almost a year before Nokia joined), meaning that LG’s problems probably aren’t coming from a failed WP push since they never really bothered with it.
So what does this mean for Nokia? Probably not much since LG were never a true competitor (I still relate them to dishwashers and TVs more than smartphones); the dynamic of WP probably won’t be affected either, especially since Huawei are reportedly planning a WP8 device of their own; which should more than make up for LG’s abandonment. What interests me more is how long Nokia’s success in WP will last, of course leading the OS share is great; but having a landslide percent might discourage other OEMs from committing to WP; which is possibly why LG decided to go back to Android.
Does WP = Nokia in people’s minds? More so than Android = Samsung? If so Nokia might be headed down a slippery slope of being left all alone once again, but it seems they’ve learned their lessons; namely by holding out on skinning WP8 to their advantage to keep the playing ground fair….for now.
Category: Lumia, Nokia, Symbian, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Heyyo, names Ali- Currently a fourth year Dental Student from Chicago; studying in Jordan. I love all sorts of gadgets almost as much as I love my cookies! (Have: Green Nokia N8, Cyan Lumia 800, Black N9, Stormtrooper White Lumia 900, Black 808 PureView, Red Lumia 920). Follow my twitter handle '@AliQudsi' - no pressure. Thanks.Subscribe
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let dump wp , samsung
what?
Optimus 7 was the first WP device I used, and it was definitely a positive experience at the time. Since then I got Lumia 800 and the difference is huge. I will not miss LG for anything else but for the credibility of the OS platform.
Actually, LG had big expectations on WP back in 2010, and the disappointment was probably as big :
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/lg-on-windows-phone-7-less-than-we-expected
Yeah, LG never promoted their LG WP devices either in TV commercials or via the internet; they expected their piss poor devices to sell themselves, and they didn’t sell, thus they were disappointed.
The Samsung Focus and the HTC HD7 were the biggest 1st gen WP device sellers. Why? Because HTC and Samsung advertised; not a long, but at least they made an effort.
LG was never ‘in it’; and they haven’t been, and won’t ever be, missed by WP users.
+1
The Optimus 7 was the best WP out of the launch lineup (given that the DVP was crap until they recalled them and got the memory issue fixed).
shure. LG is a nobody… *caugh* Optimus G *caugh*
Slowly become a windows blog. Nothing related to Nokia on this post.
+1
-1. Overwhelming amount of Nokia related news on this blog. The point, and question, by Ali…Will Nokia be synonomous with WP (as it relates to other oems supporting, or lack thereof, of the WP platform).
If you want Nokia news, with ‘hanging on by a thread’/desperate to keep Symbian in the spot light stories, there is AAS for you.
To me! Ali is just afraid to see Nokia taking the WP boat by themself. How come you need help from your competitors to make thr plataform successful?
Sounds more like a Microsoft fan than a Nokia one.
Sorry my English is short.
Exactly, I’m afraid that Nokia will end up on WP alone.. which would lead to a second Symbian situation. Nokia have proven that they can’t be the lone OEM of an OS, since they become lazy and un-competitive. Lumias are so amazing since Nokia have something to prove, they have to compete with other OEMs, ever since the WP movement Nokia have upped their specs.
So you are saying that Nokia is not capable of leading a platform by themself ? So them again, does Nokia deserve to be in the top?
Yes, Pretty much. Nokia have great ideas and some of the best minds when it comes to SW (just look at the N9) BUT they SUCK at delivering updates on time, or fixing common bugs (look at the WiFi bug that has plagued symbian from day one), I don’t think they have EVER been physically capable of actually supporting and nurturing an OS from the beginning and carrying it through properly, let’s face it just like their marketing that’s not one of their strong points; look how long it’s taken them to bring out a semi-decent keyboard to Symbian (almost 3 years and it’s not even officially released yet). S40 is the only one that’s currently still going on from Nokia with a definite future, and the OS itself hasn’t changed much since it came out (keeping it simple to avoid screwing it up).
Take a look at the N9 and the Lumia 920; both are amazing devices no matter what your favorite platform is, yet the major difference is that the Lumia has SO much HARDWARE innovation (forget swipe and meego I’m talking hardware), the N9 has the gorgeous design and the curved screen, but besides that every single N9 fan (who’s honest with himself) will tell you that specs are a major letdown and a limiting factor to the potential of the device. The Lumia on the other hand since Nokia dont have to worry (as much) about OS development is able to get more out of the HW department (I don’t think I have to list what’s so amazing about the 920).
Microsoft has the manpower and the assets to make whatever they push out succeed (WP 7 would have definitely flopped in less than a year if they hadn’t put so much money into supporting it and paying developers etc.); they have the know-how to fix the issues and if pressed enough they can do it in a reasonable sense of time.
Regardless of whether or not Nokia deserve to succeed, they won’t on their own until they address their slow SW development processes, their “acceptance” of being JUST good enough in specs (previously that has changed now), and their horrible marketing (The money MSFT pumped into the 900s campaign helped out alot, as does making the Lumias the official phone of WP). but a combo of Nokia + Microsoft definitely deserves to succeed
Edit: And of course for Microsoft and Nokia to Succeed together other OEMs have to embrace WP as a true platform which draws interest and developers (which is what I was getting at in the post itself).
N9 specs are a huge letdown? Ali, we all know you HATE the N9 and is a WP apologiser, but that is TOO MUCH.
N9 has 1GB of RAM. Every other Lumia (except 920) has 512MB. N9 had a pretty good hardware when it was relased.
WP APOLOGISER!!
true, hardware wise the early lumias were more of a huge letdown.
I think Lumia hardware is worse and of much worse quality then N9. And Windows is far far far worse from MeeGo, or Harmattan or Meltemi, as it is older with legacy of Windows it must have. I assume Windows is not attractive and this makes Nokia will be alone. Quite alone as real fans, who pays for products are still in love with both Symbian and MeeGo, while Nokia don’t have any offer fro them. The customers decides finally what is cool, not a marketing tricks. At last IMHO. I think a very few people recognise Windows as synonym of Nokia, this is synonym of Microsoft. And I want pure Nokia, don’t want Microsoft mobile. This is my choice.
Heck, the N9 even had NFC, which was premium for it’s time! Ali really goes out of his way to say bad things about the N9. If you hate the device so much, just stop mentioning it!
It had NFC, but no way to use it for anything practical. Only BlackBerries let you do NFC payment, which is the only thing people actually care about when it comes to NFC.
N9 was a let down. The camera wasn’t remotely as good as the N8. The screen was a pentile AMOLED. The CPU was a very old OMAP3. 1GB RAM was the only thing it had going for it.
A bit misleading there. You neglected to mention that the only reason pureview is on wp is because harmattan and symbian were killed. I have a funny feeling that the camera on the 920 has low res compared to 808 due to limitations in wp. your argument that the 920 has got better hw specs compared to the N9 really don’t hold much water once you factor in the fact that the phones are more than a year apart, not to mention harmattan was DOA due to elop. Symbian’s rapid decline is directly related to elop’s stupid big mouth. N9 lack of sales is directly related to elop’s big mouth. If elop had kept the old roadmap and just implemented it faster and more efficiently, we would have continued singing the praises of harmattan/Meego and brought over existing symbian users (of course not all, but most). Nokia spent the best part of the year losing customers due to the lack of leadership and a bold faced lie from elop, not for lack of support from consumers or developers.
WP handled the 16MP of the Titan II just fine. It’s not WP that’s at fault. Remember, every post N8 camera was shit.
MMM… Then if you have been in the presentation of the new Lumias, you could get mad, really mad… there were more MS representatives / staff that Nokia ones
this is why i hardly come here now ….nothing but boring tiles >.> which was well expected like i mentioned from months ago sad fate for nokia
You should keep it that way, come here even less.
IOS is made and operated by Apple only , It’s not a mistake to own an OS that nobody else does .
Not listening to what your users want plus releasing buggy phone.
I used to hear it a lot… you just can’t have a Nokia that was good all around . Many times your top of the line Nokia will miss a feature that a dumb Nokia phone enjoys !!!.
920 seems to be an exception … let’s hope the buggy part doesn’t happen.
From 16 partners for Windows Phone 7 down to 4. Hell, even HP that dumped Web OS for Windows 8 on Tablets is thinking of getting back into the smart Phone game – WITH ANDROID!
Nokia IS going to be all alone with Samsung in Windows Phone, and unless Windows Phone 8 turns the tide, the OS has already been completely and resoundingly rejected by the market.
The Lumia 920 has some really impressive hardware, but the product announcement was botched – what’s with Nokia and botched product announcements anyway? They hire Nikki Minaj for the Lumia 900 and she tweets about it from her BlackBerry (and since has performed two free concerts for BlackBerry users) and then they have the scandal with the ad for the 920 not being shot with a 920.
The real problem though is that Windows Phone offers nothing compelling for iOS users to make the switch. It’s jsut another walled garden ecosystem just like iOS, but with even less customization options and a UI that is either love it or hate it with no one in the middle. Android users and former Symbian users used to open platforms have even fewer reason to even look at Windows Phone – thus why 150 million Symbian users are buying ANDROID phones not Windows Phones.
Lol! This is one Symbian users who will gladly be purchasing a Lumia 920. Android will never get my money, and Symbian will NEVER see another purchase from me. EVER
Try MeeGo with N9 or with on-coming Jolla. Linux is much more friendly.
No it’s not. Linux has been spinning in a rut for years, and isn’t getting out.
Glad you think your phone is a desktop, only OS driven market not dominated by Linux, yes on ALL others Linux is #1 server/phone/embedded/ipTV etc etc…
Granted tablet is dominated by IOS kernel…Linux is only #2 there.
Count me , too. I’m all in for Lumia 920
Nokia, should release a Meego and Android version of the L920 an in general give the end users a choice in the OS. Nokia has been reduced to a Hardware producer, and they have to exploit this. It is perhaps a little naive but i actually hope that Nokia will be producing the Jolla phone, it would make sens in so many ways. From now on Nokia has to focus on the number of handsets sold and OS should be irrelevant for them.
Agreed. Nokia gains sales numbers by using it’s solid hw producing reputation, the loyal fans get a choice of their favoured OS (2 maintained by others, harmattan and Asha by Nokia). Win all around and when wp falls flat on it’s face, Nokia still has a user base to fall back on.
Hopefully Jolla will come out with some teaser info on what they’re working on to keep the momentum going.
Quick question, can you name the 16 partners?
Nokia’s success in WP? LMAO.
meh i have to agree.I love symbian but for the love of me I dont get why every symbian release had some or other bugs.heck belle has bugs that were present in previous releases.the execution of symbian sucked.i do however not want an android.i associate quad cores with computers not phones.says alot about the os fragmentation.further more the best droids are samsungs.i associate samsung with cheap build quality.therefore id go into wp,an os i simply dislike due to those darn tiles,coupled with a good quality device.A fragmented os and a cheaply built phone just wont work for me.
It’s kind of sad, they launched with some of the best hardware.
Smart move, LG. On the other hand, it is questionable how performant you can be in the Android arena after at least a couple of years of sleeping. LG has the money, tho, if they are willing to invest from their other departments to fight in the bloody mobile market.
LG would have miniscule market share whichever way you turn it, and better to have a small piece of a huge pie than to have a large piece of tiny one. Nokia is probably the only company that can at least earn something in the WP market, tho I doubt that would be enough for a company of a size of Nokia. If by some miracle WP manages to grab a significant part of the market share, you can bet that the Samsung will up the antes, and eventually Nokia could end up as LG. Their current ‘success’ in the WP department is more due to a fact that nobody really competes there, which can change easily if by that aforementioned miracle WP becomes a viable platform. The big question, tho, is if Nokia could even survive to see that far-fetched potential miracle.
+1 as per usual.
LG is like Samsung, they make a lot of the hardware that goes into phones, so they can really push it in the specs department. They’re probably working on making their own SOC like Samsung does with the Exynos. Given that, they’ve got a shot with Android where other manufacturers really don’t.
+1
I just read that LG was eyeing Windows 8 in one of the article.
http://www.t3.com/news/lg-still-eyeing-up-windows-8
“…I still relate them to dishwashers and TVs more than smartphones…”
Not to mention refrigerators, washing machines and a myriad of other appliances. To be honest, I don’t respect them at all since a few of the appliances I used to own last just a year and a half before it kicked the bucket. If not dead, then it is plagued with a lot of problems.
In regards to LG leaving WP, I certainly won’t miss them. It’s not like their WP phones have any presence here in Malaysia, and the same can be said of HTC and Samsung. Forgive me if I sound like a broken record by now, but their only appearance last year is a photo of 3 guys representing their respective companies holding their WP phones with zero marketing onwards.