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Despite stellar reviews, sales disappoint for LG’s G6 smartphone

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LG
It seems like LG’s year wasn’t as good as the company might have hoped. While the LG G6 was almost universally well-received, that good reception apparently didn’t translate into great sales — making this just another year in a string of rough years for the company.

As you might recall, last year it was the LG G5 that was blamed for LG’s lackluster sales, but that was a little more expected considering the fact that many reviewers didn’t like the G5 as much. Before that, the G4’s sales also “fell short of expectations.”

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Of course, in general LG is doing fine. Smartphones are just one of LG’s businesses, and the company reported in its earnings call that three of its four major business units reported higher revenues this year than last year.

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It’s not all that surprising that the G6 had some troubles. LG seems to have timed the release of the phone terribly. Because it released the phone in the first quarter of 2017, it was forced to use Qualcomm’s older chip, the Snapdragon 821 — while other flagships that were launched later this year instead used the Snapdragon 835. The reason for that was that the company was trying to get to market faster the the Snapdragon 835 devices — but by the time the phone was available in the U.S., the Samsung Galaxy S8, with the Snapdragon 835, had already been announced.

Once the Galaxy S8 was launched, we can’t imagine too many people opted instead for the G6. The Galaxy S8 is better than the G6 in almost every way, especially when it comes to power under the hood.

In any case, hopefully LG has finally learned its lesson. It will be very interesting to see what the company comes up with next year, and we can’t forget about the heavily rumored LG V30, which will serve as a follow up to the LG V20 and will be available later this year. The V30 will take advantage of the latest Qualcomm chip, and may be coupled with a hefty 6GB of RAM — which would make it one of the more powerful phones on the market.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
The 6 best LG smartphones of all time, ranked
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No. 6: LG V20

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As an industry analyst covering all things related to network connectivity, I have a unique perspective given the time I spend with enterprise networking infrastructure companies, operators, and service providers. Each makes an argument for why a Wi-Fi 6 or 5G solution is best-suited for deployment given application, use case, or workflow.
Lately, some wireless carriers claim that next-generation 5G deployments will render Wi-Fi obsolete. It is an understandable claim to make given the billions of dollars that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are investing in deploying both fixed and mobile 5G networks. However, I will dive deeper into the underlying technologies behind both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 to analyze each and determine if a true winner can be crowned.
Three consideration vectors
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5G and Wi-Fi 6 are not in a grudge match -- they're complementary.

Propagation is a second consideration. Today, mobile broadband has significant challenges in traveling through walls and objects versus Wi-Fi 6. Many companies such as JMA Wireless, Airspan Networks, and others are attempting to solve this challenge, but the effort is still nascent. However, with optimal midband licensed spectrum assets, 5G can be a compelling machine-to-machine connectivity option for factory and process automation use cases in more open industrial spaces. On the other hand, Wi-Fi, with its access point and router install base density, provides excellent propagation and performance for most traditional campus environments.
Finally, there's scale. Wi-Fi enjoys a significant install base footprint in organizations large and small, and Wi-Fi 6 delivers improvements in performance, latency, power consumption, and device density over prior generations. On the other hand, 5G has traditionally been used for redundancy in mission-critical operations. Still, its adoption is growing significantly in light of private cellular networking and the momentum behind Open RAN that can dramatically reduce capital expenditures on infrastructure deployment.
IT vs. OT environments
Another factor to consider in evaluating 5G and Wi-Fi 6 is the actual deployment area within the enterprise. For a quick explanation, IT typically refers to the computer hardware and software in the traditional office environment, while OT monitors and controls manufacturing, industrial assets, and processes. In my opinion, Wi-Fi 6 will continue to enjoy widespread deployment in IT, given its install base. In contrast, OT, or “non-carpeted” areas of enterprises, have traditionally lacked connectivity or employ a mishmash of solutions that are often proprietary and difficult to manage. Consequently, 5G is poised to bring a compelling connectivity option to OT environments.
Wrapping Up
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The sign outside MediaTek's headquarters in Taiwan.

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