Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

A few days ago, South Korean media The Elec revealed that LG is developing a new OLED panel codenamed "RDE" for Apple, which will be used in future iPad products. LG is also developing another OLED panel codenamed "RDG", which is planned to be used in the new MacBook to be released in 2027.

The main advantage of the new LG panel is the use of two light-emitting layers, which can reduce power consumption and prolong screen life. It can be seen that Apple will deepen the popularity of its OLED panels in the future. In this process, panel giant LG will play a key role.

LG is definitely a well-known company in the technology industry. However, as a South Korean technology giant, LG's brilliance is always suppressed by Samsung, which has a bigger position. Unlike the complicated and estranged relationship between Samsung and Apple, LG looks more like Apple's loyal partner or a force to contain Samsung.

For Apple, the reason why LG looks so "harmless" is mainly due to the demise of LG's mobile phone business. LG mobile phone once had a glorious past, leaving a strong ink and color in the history of mobile phone development. However, LG, which has spun off its mobile phone business, is still living quite well and plays an important role in its areas of expertise.

(photo Source: LG) the smartphone era of LG: before the smartphone era, LG has been involved in the mobile phone industry. Although Nokia was dominant and occupied most of the market share at that time, LG still won some of the market by virtue of its advantages such as appearance design. In 2006, the year before the release of the original iPhone, LG's famous "chocolate" phone became an instant hit. The phone uses the popular slide design at that time, but its thickness is properly controlled, and it also uses fiberglass material and piano painting technology, which has both a sense of technology and a sense of fashion.

In the next smartphone era, there is no doubt that LG has entered the Android camp. In 2012, LG created Google's classic son-in-law Nexus 4, with a double-sided glass design and native Android, making the product recognizable. Moreover, the Nexus 4 also used the top flagship chip of the time, which was priced at $299 and was compared with the Xiaomi 2 series by many people.

(photo Source: Google) what impresses us most when we recall LG's smartphone is that LG dared to take the lead again and again. In 2014, LG brought the curved screen phone LG G Flex, which looks very recognizable with the curved curve of the body and screen.

(photo Source: LG) in 2016, LG brought a modular design of the mobile phone LG G5. The chin of this product is removable, can be used to replace the battery, and can be used with camera accessories. The LG G5 also comes with two rear cameras and an ultra-wide-angle lens in addition to the main shot, which provided a lot of interesting ways to play at the time.

(photo Source: LG) in 2020, LG released a dual-screen phone, the wing 5, which rotates between the two screens, creating a more novel experience. However, when LG wing 5 was released, the LG mobile phone business was already in decline, and it was also a far-off product that was not very practical.

(photo Source: LG) there are many brands moving from functional phones to smartphones, but few have the last laugh, and LG is not as lucky as Samsung. Compared with Samsung, the integration advantage of LG industry chain is much lower. Although on the screen panel, LG displays can provide a lot of support. However, the panel advantage of the LG LCD era can not be quickly extended to the OLED era, and LG does not have the ability of comprehensive control in the fields of memory, chip self-research and OEM, such as Samsung.

When LG phones don't have a real differentiation advantage, it's hard to get consumers to pay for LG products that aren't cheap. Most of the bold designs of the above-mentioned LG phones come from the designer's inspiration, lack of practicality, and will soon disappear in the next generation of products. This type of phone may impress a small number of geek users, but it is difficult to support real sales.

Once the smartphone industry enters the hand-to-hand battle for inventory, LG will inevitably lose under the attack of giants and emerging brands.

Without a mobile phone, LG is just like Samsung. LG is also a super-large conglomerate with a wide range of businesses. Specifically, LG has a number of subsidiaries in charge of different businesses, of which LG Electronics and LG display are familiar brands. In addition, LG Group also has LG Telecom, which operates the business of operators, LG New Energy, which has a strong sense of existence in the field of new energy in recent years, and LG Life Health, which is a giant in the fast consumer goods industry. It is understood that the number of enterprises owned by LG Group is more than 80.

Of course, we can't introduce so many enterprises and businesses one by one, but even if we choose a few of them, we can get a glimpse into the current situation of LG.

First, LG shows that the company works closely with mobile companies such as Apple. IPhone,LG, Apple's early LCD screens, is one of the most important panel suppliers. In 2017, when iPhone X was released, Apple equipped the iPhone with OLED screens for the first time, with only one supplier at that time. But soon, LG OLED panels are being used in large quantities on Apple devices.

LG's screen panel is used not only in mobile phones, but also in televisions, car screens, notebooks and many other similar devices. According to Omdia statistics, LG has a 50% market share in the automotive OLED panel market in 2022, surpassing Samsung, which ranks second. In 2022, LG shipped more than 1000 OLED TV panels.

(image source: LG) of course, the OLED panel is a high-investment and high-risk project, and LG shows that it will only end four consecutive years of losses in 2021 to make a profit. This year, Q1Magi LG shows that it is losing money again due to the decline in market demand. However, from the future trend, the OLED screen still has great potential in the future, which will bring huge returns to the continuous investment of LG.

Then there is LG New Energy, which is powered by Dongfeng Electric vehicles. Among the power battery suppliers, you can often see LG New Energy ranked in the top three along with Ningde Times and BYD.

According to the latest data released by SNE research, from January to August this year, in the global power battery market, Ningde Times ranked first with 36.9% market share, BYD ranked second with 15.9% market share, and LG New Energy ranked third with 14.2% market share. In the automobile power battery market, a tripod pattern of these three brands has been formed.

(figure source: SNE) according to financial data, LG New Energy's Q2 revenue this year was 8.774 trillion won (47.7 billion yuan), up 73% from a year earlier, while profit was 461 billion won (2.5 billion yuan), up 136% from a year earlier. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, LG new energy will also become an important source of income for LG Group in the future.

Without the mobile phone business, LG Electronics still has a strong sense of existence. LG has dabbled in high-end household appliances, PC periphery, electric vehicles and other fields. In this year's Q2 financial report, LG Electronics said that the strong demand for high-end household appliances and electric car parts has achieved both revenue and profit growth. However, LG consumer electronics products are still rare in the domestic market. Household appliances such as LG televisions and washing machines are often positioned as high-end, avoiding direct competition with domestic brands, and have more influence in South Korea, Europe and the United States.

Overall, without the mobile phone business, LG remains one of the most important technology companies in the global market and plays a key role in many industries. For such a giant group with a wide range of businesses and complex organizational structure, mobile phone was once only one of the many businesses under the LG Group, and its disappearance will not have a painful impact on LG.

Do not do mobile phones, but LG is still closely connected with digital LG to give up mobile phone business is naturally forced by the situation, by the time the LG board of directors formally decided to terminate the mobile phone business in 2021, LG mobile phones have been losing money for 23 consecutive quarters, with a cumulative loss of nearly 30 billion yuan. But unlike single-business mobile phone brands such as HTC and BlackBerry, LG can still rely on other businesses to maintain its position in the technology industry.

Moreover, although it does not make mobile phones directly, LG still maintains close contact with mobile phones and digital products. Going back to the revelation we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Apple's iPad and MacBook will use LG's new OLED screen in the future. Apple's choice of LG is estimated to have multiple considerations, on the one hand, LG has this strength on the OLED panel, on the other hand, there is no direct conflict of interest between the two.

In addition to Apple, LG OLED screens and batteries are also being supplied to all kinds of mobile phones and PC brands. As ordinary consumers, we are still using the technological achievements of components and applications produced by LG. However, LG has changed from a terminal brand in direct contact with users to a supplier of the upstream industrial chain, from the front to the backstage.

The smartphone industry may be the most inward and most competitive consumer electronics sector, with too many brands with their own halos eliminated or marginalized in a round of reshuffle. In addition to LG, there are a series of once familiar names such as HTC, MOTO, Nokia and so on on this list. LG leaves the court after repeated failures and struggles, and there is not much to blame.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Xiao Lei Bei (ID:xiaoleibbb), author: Chongjia

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