Nam Yong, the CEO of LG Electronics, is stepping down and handing over control to 59 year old Koo Bon-joon, one of the founding fathers of LG. Why is he leaving? Poor performance in the mobile phones division. LG, who once was known for producing cheap and substandard devices, got their act together between 2005 and 2008 and went from the 6th best selling handset manufacturer to the 3rd, but as of late … the company just hasn’t been firing on all cylinders. It’s not really hard to see why. They don’t focus on one particular operating system over another, their biggest competitor and neighbor Samsung is the country’s love child that gets all the attention, and their more recent devices look so mediocre that you almost feel like no one at LG has an ounce of creative juices flowing through their veins.
We’ve seen the upcoming LG Windows Phone 7 on numerous occasions, and it’s just like every other Windows Phone 7 device, and that’s partially Microsoft’s fault for creating a strict set of rules in terms of processor, screen size and resolution. There’s also the various Android devices on the market such as the Ally on Verizon, which again, don’t really get your heart pumping with feelings of want.
LG even went so far as to hire people from academia to help them make better user interfaces, as if they think that was their problem? The company needs industrial designers, and fast. It’s OK for them to stick to stock Android and Windows Phone 7 installs. No one is going to chide them for it, but it needs to be put on gorgeous hardware otherwise people are just going to go on buying the brands they know and love: Nokia, Samsung, Apple and Motorola.
Have you ever owned an LG phone? Are they built well compared to other devices?