It’s the end of yet another action-packed week in tech, and as the norm is, it’s also time for me to pen down my weekly ‘Winners and Losers’ column. It would also come as no surprise that LG is an easy pick as the loser of the week because of - you know what. But what if I tell you we had to pick the same company also as the winner? Read on to find out why.
But before that, let us take a quick peek into what else transpired in the world of tech in the past 7 days. While this week did have its share of launches, most of them were not quite relevant for Europe, and some of the launches were - dare I say - boring!
One interesting phone that was officially launched this week is the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2. This is Lenovo’s answer to the Asus ROG Phone 5 and is loaded with top-end features that include the Snapdragon 888 SoC, 12/16/18GB RAM and 256/512GB storage options. The battery, while not as massive as on the ROG Phone 5 - is still a behemoth at 5,500mAh.
Where this Lenovo phone one-ups the ROG Phone 5 (by a small margin) is in the fast charging department with this device supporting 65W fast charging. The Legion Phone Duel 2 will go on sale in China first. European availability is set for May 2021.
Nokia was also in the news this week after the company announced the launch of 6 new budget/affordable smartphones. Looking at the phones, however, would be more apt to say that the company launched three phones and another Pro variant of the same phones. The new devices launched are the following.
- Nokia X10
- Nokia X20
- Nokia G10
- Nokia G20
- Nokia C10
- Nokia C20
Read more about these phones in our dedicated launch article.
Samsung is reportedly readying a successor to the Galaxy A80 from 2019. This phone will be launched as the Galaxy Quantum 2 in Korea while the international variant could be christened as the Samsung Galaxy A82. While the Galaxy A80 was famous for its flip-up camera, the Quantum 2 is expected to be a ‘normal’ smartphone with no such features. The phone is, interestingly, likely to come powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon855+ and will feature a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display.
The next news is also related to Samsung. The company, in 2020, came up with its own flagship killer - the Galaxy S20 FE in two variants - an Exynos equipped 4G variant and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 equipped 5G version. In 2021, the Exynos based 4G variant seems to have been retired in favour of a new 4G variant that uses the Snapdragon 865+. For those wondering why Samsung does these confusing things with its flagship phones, you might want to read our article on the same topic.
Another interesting piece of news from this week was a report about the adoption rate of iOS 14. Ever since it was released, over 90 per cent of iOS devices are have already updated to the newest stable version of the OS. This is in contrast to just 25 per cent of users (in the US) having updated to the latest stable Android version (Android 11).
Let us now come to the Winner and Loser of this week.
Winner and Loser of the week: LG takes both the crowns this week!
This is not the first time that one entity has managed to take both the Winners and Losers crown in the same week. Now, most of you guys are aware as to why LG was an easy choice as the loser of the week. The company, towards the beginning of the week, made the dreaded announcement of shutting down its troubled smartphone division. This meant curtains on a 19-year-old long saga of making some of the most interesting smartphone designs we have ever seen. In fact, even as it was on its deathbed, LG’s beleaguered smartphone division was working on the very interesting ‘rollable phone’ which sadly, will never see the light of the day. From a pure business perspective, LG’s smartphone division was a complete dud - and which is why it easily takes the crown of being our loser for this week.
But why on earth did we pick the same company as our winner for this week? Well, there are three reasons.
- We did not really find an apt winner (sigh!)
- LG announced its preliminary quarterly report – and guess what? The company is actually doing good!
- LG smartphones announced its update schedule for its existing, relatively new phones. And looks like the company won’t abandon their smartphone users.
As you already read, at the same time LG Electronics made the decision to axe its smartphones division, the company also announced its preliminary report for Q1, 2021, in which they announced that the results are spectacular. In fact, the company’s revenue and operating profit have increased a lot since the past year.
Then there was the confirmation from LG to its smartphone owners about OS and software updates for the next three years. The update guarantee applies to premium phones from the company that was launched after 2019 and includes devices from the G-Series, and V-Series, along with the LG Velvet, and the LG Wing.
Overall, while it was a terrible week for you if you happened to be one of those rare LG fanboys, the silver lining is that the company as a whole is doing a whole lot better now. And who knows if things improve in the future, they might as well stage a comeback!?
Read More Open link https://ift.tt/3uNgxu9
0 Response to "Winners and Losers of the week: It’s all about LG"
Posting Komentar