Industry·Finance: Economy: News: Hankyoreh

LG office building in Yeouido, Seoul. LG offer

‘3GSM World Congress’ held in Barcelona, ​​Spain in February 2007 (changed to Mobile World Congress (MWC) from 2008). With its reputation as the world’s largest mobile exhibition, a large number of global mobile carriers and mobile phone manufacturers participated. LG Electronics press conference held for Korean reporters in the exhibition hall. “We have nothing to say, nothing to offer.” The vice president, who was in charge of LG Electronics’ mobile phone business at the time, made a wild remark on the stage. “I misread the market and technology flow. There is a technical gap of about two years to keep up with the Apple iPhone.” His voice was full of power.

That evening, a Samsung Electronics press conference was held at a restaurant in a suburb of Barcelona. “The touch method Apple adopted for the iPhone is useful only when using content created by others. For users who create content or write double-byte characters like Hangul, the decompression method (screen input technology adopted in Samsung Electronics’ Omnia smartphone at the time) may be more advantageous.” “It will surely bring the decompression era to come,” he also made a remark with’poison’. Earlier, on January 9 of that year, Apple surprised the world with a new smartphone’iPhone’. It was evaluated as groundbreaking in its usage and usability, including the world’s first touch method and sound source service. Zoljie Apple and Steve Jobs have emerged as icons of innovation. With the advent of the iPhone, the global mobile phone manufacturing industry has undergone a change of perception. It was divided into a’surviving company’ and a’disappearing company’ after misreading the trend by leading or climbing the trend of change. Samsung Electronics, who was hit by Apple, focused on the’fast follower’ with pride. Thanks to that, the company succeeded in maintaining a pair-headed formation with Apple in the smartphone market. The’full dead’ LG Electronics mobile business has not escaped the shrinking trend. The deficit continued to be hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Finally, I raised my hand in the mobile phone market. It became another example of leading the market change or breaking down the business because it was unable to keep up with the trend. Finland’s Nokia and Korea’s Pantech, which had dominated the world market during the feature phone days, fell earlier.

Hankyoreh material photo

In the field of information and communication technology, there are often cases where the market trend is not read and the company is blinded by short-term performance and then disappears into the history. Sun Microsystems, which once symbolized the success model of a venture business, is a prime example. The company, blinded by the server demand created by the dot-com boom, slowed its transition to a software company and disappeared without a trace. Japanese camera companies were shut down one after another because the market was stolen by smartphones. There are quite a few similar cases in Korea. In the early days of personal computers (PCs), the company that led the assembly-oriented market was Sambo Computer. Sambo Computer, founded by former honorary chairman Yong-tae Lee in 1980 with a capital of 10 million won in Sewoon Shopping Center in Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, in 1980, studied personal computer parts produced abroad, and was the first in Korea to be used for personal use in 1981. I made a computer’SE-8001′. It was the first domestic company to export personal computers to Canada. In 1989, it was listed on the stock exchange, and in 1991, a factory with an annual production capacity of 1 million was established in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do. Since then, conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Daewoo Electronics have jumped into the fish market. Sambo Computer stood firmly with advanced technology. However, with the popularization of fish in the 1990s, low-cost Chinese-made products were pouring in, and the wave of change from personal computers to multimedia devices was not overcome. In 2005, he finally applied for legal management (current corporate rehabilitation procedure). Iriver (Raincom), a portable digital music player (MP3 player) company, took the same path. Since its establishment in 1999, it occupied 60% of the domestic market share and 20% of the global market share in 2000. It was dominating the global portable digital music player market. However, it did not respond properly to the trend of rapidly absorbing the music player market by smartphones. At the time of listing on the KOSDAQ in 2003, thanks to a stock price of 105,200 won, founder Yang Deok-jun was ranked higher than the founder of Daum Communications Lee Jae-woong, but soon walked a path of decline. When it was acquired by SKT in 2014, it could not keep the name of iRiver.

A sign seat in front of the Facebook office building. Facebook is using the old Sun Microsystems building as its office building, but in order not to forget the sun that has been settled down, the front part of the cover seat is changed to Facebook and the back is left as it is. By Lee Wan, staff reporter

Most of the personal computer and mobile phone companies that were pushed out because they could not keep up with the changes in technology and market were sold to Chinese and Taiwanese companies. For example, IBM’s personal computer (including laptops) division was sold to Lenovo in China. However, even such an opportunity was not given to domestic companies such as Sambo Computer, Pantech, and iRiver. There was strong public opinion that it could not be passed on to Chinese companies by taking the standard of’technology leak’. Most of them did not get the opportunity to acquire mergers and acquisitions, and they withered and died in the standing position, and were sold or shredded at a bargain price. It is in the same context that LG Electronics chose to end the business rather than sell it as a way to organize the mobile phone business. An LG Electronics official said, “Who will buy it?” As Apple and Samsung Electronics are showing their focus on mid- to low-end models these days, it is predicted that smartphones have reached the limit of innovation. It means that there is a trend of change in the smartphone market, or a completely new trend can take place over the current smartphone market. It also means that Samsung Electronics and Apple’s smartphone business can never be relieved. Just as Apple changed the composition of the mobile phone industry with the iPhone and changed the industrial landscape, someone gave a’post smartphone’ to drive the smartphone business of Apple and Samsung Electronics into the same position as Sambo Computer, iRiver, Pantech, LG Electronics’ mobile phone business. May be.

In 2005, a female netizen is enjoying the popular game’Kartrider’ with the Everratech 5500, Sambo Computer’s 990,000 won laptop. By Lee Jeong-yong, staff reporter

After LG Electronics decided to end its mobile phone business, the company’s stock price rose. It is natural that the stock price rises as it is to close the business that was in the red by hundreds of billions of dollars each year. On the other hand, there is no law that the’myth’ that hit the jackpot by Apple’s return to Steve Jobs, which made a loss after returning to Steve Jobs or rearranged a large number of businesses with no vision, and later developed it into an iPhone, should not happen at LG Electronics. There is an anecdote from an Apple person in the past. “After the return of Steve Jobs, Apple entrusted it to a specialized company to find a new business item, and observed the life patterns of about 12,000 people in detail. Of course, the parties agreed. I have found that many people think that the time from the front door of their home to work from the front door to work and from leaving the office to get home from work is free. The iPod was aimed at this time of day.” The end of the LG Electronics mobile phone business is the decision of LG Chairman Kwang-mo Gu. It is the biggest decision that has been made since the inauguration of Chairman Koo, and I would like to believe that it was the most painful in terms of organizing the business that President Sundae had undertaken in a bad way. On the other hand, just as Apple created iPods and iPhones after the pain of cleaning up its existing businesses after Steve Jobs returned, Chairman Kwang-mo Koo and El Electronics will come up with a new weapon that will lead the era of’post smartphones’ based on the pain of ending the mobile phone business. There is no law to speak. Senior Reporter Kim Jae-seop [email protected]