As we all know, the world mobile phone industry is very volatile. Under the big waves of the market, many mobile phone manufacturers have fallen behind in the fierce competition, and the remaining big players are indeed very few. Former mobile phone giants like Nokia and LG have both lost their magic in the mobile phone manufacturing industry. Some of these fallen heroes merged with others while others shut down mobile phone production completely. I think it will interest you to know that these four brands are still strong despite withdrawing from the mobile phone market.
4 Brands That Are Still strong despite withdrawing from the mobile phone market
Of course, Many companies have not closed down just because they don’t sell mobile phones. Although some are slowly going downhill, many are thriving by relying on other businesses.
1. Nokia
Before the rise of smartphones, Nokia was the absolute king in the mobile phone market, with a market share of around 40% at its peak. Seeing the classic handshake startup animation brings joy and smiles to consumers.
It is a pity that Nokia was too slow to respond to the rise of Android and iOS. It insisted on using the Symbian system and missed the explosion of smartphones.
Another mistake that Nokia made was that when it seeks to change and wants to replace the system, the first thing that comes to mind is not Google’s Android, but Microsoft’s Windows phone.
These wrong decisions caused Nokia’s mobile phone market share to fall again and again until it was surpassed by Samsung in 2011.
The last story, we also know that after being acquired by Microsoft in 2013, Nokia basically withdrew from the competition in the smartphone market.
Why is Nokia Still Relevant in The IT World?
Just last month, Nokia released its financial report for the third quarter of this year. They record profits in the region of 633 million euros.
Nokia, which doesn’t sell many mobile phones, can still make a lot of money. How did it do it?
In fact, in addition to being a former mobile phone giant, Nokia has another identity, that is, the world’s third largest base station equipment manufacturer. Ahead of it are Huawei and Ericsson.
Sales of this communication equipment accounted for 80% of the total performance, which is the bulk of Nokia’s profits.
It turns out that in the year when it was acquired by Microsoft, Nokia also made a major event, acquiring Nokia Siemens Networks.
Briefly, Nokia Siemens Networks is a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens. At that time, both parties contributed 50% to developing 3G and 4G communication technologies.
In 2016, Nokia also completed the acquisition of telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent.
So far, Nokia’s share in the telecom equipment market has greatly increased, and it has become the top three in the world.
With the rapid development of the Internet, the market’s demand for base station equipment has also greatly increased, and Nokia took advantage of this wave to make a comeback.
In addition to communication equipment, Nokia is also making money by relying on technology patents such as 5G.
Not only directly get the authorized patent fee, but also often catch other mobile phone manufacturers to file lawsuits.
Apple, Vivo, and OPPO have all had patent disputes with Nokia.
Relying on the business of communication equipment and patent licensing, Nokia has survived and is still one of the top 500 companies in the world.
2. LG
Last year, LG announced its complete withdrawal from the mobile phone market, which is embarrassing. It was a last resort to make this decision because the loss of the mobile phone business was too much to handle for the company. The company has lost money for 23 consecutive quarters.
After cutting off the “money-losing product” that is the mobile phone business, LG can focus more on its other businesses.
And LG has more money-making business, after all, it is the second largest group in South Korea after Samsung. The most representative ones are home appliances, car batteries, and display panels.
LG’s home appliances are among the best in the world, and there are many categories, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, etc.
In the first half of 2021, LG also defeated its own competitor, Whirlpool Corporation of the United States, and became the world’s most profitable home appliance brand.
Apparently, It is estimated that many consumers have LG TVs in their homes. 
In addition to home appliances, electric vehicle batteries are also a key business of LG, and the number of patents in this area has reached more than 20,000.
LG Also Manufactures Energy Batteries
Not to mention, in September 2022, LG New Energy’s battery capacity was 8.8GWh, second only to the battery giant CATL.
Not only that, LG is also frequently building joint venture factories with car companies such as Honda and GM in North America to expand battery production capacity.
LG is Second Only to Samsun in The Production of Display Panels
LG is also a manufacturer of display panels. It not only manufactures its own displays but also provides screens to many mobile phone manufacturers.
The screen of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is provided by Samsung and LG. So, although LG doesn’t sell mobile phones anymore, it has never left the electronics and gadgets circle.
3. Blackberry
BlackBerry is a smartphone made by Canada’s RIM company. There are not many domestic users, but in 2006 they had nearly half of the US market.
You know, the iPhone’s share in the United States only exceeded 50% this year, which is evident from the popularity of BlackBerry at that time.
But even such a mobile phone cannot escape the random onslaught of Android and iOS. In 2016, BlackBerry stopped developing smartphones.
However, BlackBerry also has a long-term vision and started the road of transformation early.
In 2010, the software company QNX was acquired. This move was also an opportunity for BlackBerry to enter a new track.
The core product of QNX is the real-time operating system, which has become the trump card of BlackBerry’s turnaround.
Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Baidu Apollo all use QNX’s system for autonomous driving.
Vehicle Brands Equipped With QNX Systems
In addition, QNX has also received many orders from Cisco, the former providing system support for the latter’s high-end routing equipment.
4. HTC
Cher Wang, chairman of HTC, once swallows her bold words: “If there are only two mobile phone manufacturers in the future, then HTC must be one of them.”
At that time, HTC did have such confidence. As the company that manufactured the world’s first Android phone, HTC also had its own golden age.
In 2010, the HTC Desire G7 sold more than 10 million units within four months of its release.
In 2011, HTC’s global shipments were more than 43 million units, ranking fourth in the world, and it was the NO.1 among Android phones.
I thought this was the beginning of HTC, but I didn’t expect it to be the pinnacle of HTC.
Since then, patent disputes, lack of innovation, and wrong marketing strategies have all hindered the development of HTC.
HTC mobile phones have gradually stopped selling in many places around the world and gradually disappeared. Last year, they completely withdrew from the Chinese market.
Although the mobile phone business has been losing ground, HTC has not been idle but has set its sights on the VR field.
As early as 2015, HTC and the game company Valve jointly developed and launched the VR virtual reality helmet HTC Vive.
In the booming AR market at that time, this product achieved a double harvest of sales and goodwill.
The current VR equipment is limited by its functions, most of its users are gamers, and its scale is relatively small. Coupled with its high price, it seems that it is destined not to bring high revenue to HTC.
The strong efforts of companies such as Meta and Sony in VR are also constantly eroding HTC’s market share.
In the past two years, HTC has also focused on the popular metaverse, and even launched the so-called metaverse mobile phone Desire 22 Pro.
The configuration of the mobile phone is quite satisfactory. Although not off the charts
Among other things, you are already in the metaverse, why do you still use the mid-to-low-end chip Snapdragon 695?
In order to get in touch with the metaverse, the phone is also installed with software such as Vive Avatar, which can create virtual avatars, and Vive Wallet, which can manage virtual assets.
We don’t know what the future of HTC will be.
Final Note
But what is certain is that after the mobile phone business cooled, HTC’s operations did not stop the loss.
It can be seen that most of these once-brilliant mobile phone brands have chosen to transform.
Although they have withdrawn from the competition in the mobile phone market, their stories continue.
Leave a Reply