LG Officially Shuts Down Its Mobile Business

LG has announced that it is winding down its mobile business. Rumours regarding the closure have been floating around since earlier this year but it is only today that the company revealed that the move has now been approved by LG’s board of directors earlier today.

Inside the announcement, LG also stated that its existing phone will continue to be available for purchase. Similarly, customers will also be able to obtain aftersales support and software update for a certain period of time that LG said will differ from one market to another.

Despite its exit from the mobile phone market, LG insists that it will be utilising everything that it has learned and developed during its two decades in the mobile industry for other business segments. The company will also continue to be involved in the development of future mobile technologies such as 6G.

While LG expects that the closure is to be finalised by the end of July this year, the fate of the employees within the LG’s mobile phone division was not revealed in detail inside the announcement. There was a rumour earlier this year claiming that LG was going to sell off its mobile phone manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, China, and Brazil to Vietnam’s Vingroup but this was not addressed in today’s announcement.

Nevertheless, the company did say that it will be “determined at the local level,”. On another hand, we don’t expect today’s announcement from LG will have impact on Malaysian consumers though, due to the fact that LG has stopped selling its phones in our market since a few years ago with 2017’s LG V30+ being the last model sold here.

Historic Winter Storm Shuts Texan Chip Factories, Worsening Global Chip Shortage

A historically cold winter storm has shuttered chip-making plants in Texas, likely worsening the ongoing chip shortage across the world. The BBC said that the storm caused power outages across the state, leaving millions in the dark and forcing major chip-makers like Samsung and NXP to temporarily close their factories.

Samsung, the world’s second biggest chip-maker, halted work at its Austin factory, Bloomberg reported, while NXP, a top producer of chips for cars, also did the same at its two Austin-based plants. According to the BBC, Texas houses more semiconductor manufacturing plants than any other state in the US, effectively making it the country’s chip-making capital.

The blackouts were caused in large part by the dramatic surge in demand for power and heat as temperatures fell. Earlier this week, temperatures in Texas plunged to a stunning -18 Celsius – the coldest on Texas’ record in over 30 years. People are understandably cranking up their radiators, and authorities are reportedly prioritising power distribution to families.

There’s some concern over how the factory shutdowns could affect an eventual return to production. Chip factories have to operate 24 hours a day to be economically viable. And bringing a sudden stop to the complex process of producing semiconductors risks damaging at least some of the work in progress, Bloomberg noted.

Global chip production was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now straining to meet incredible consumer demand for vehicles and electronics. The lack of chips has delayed or hobbled the production of cars, smartphones, graphic cards, and gaming consoles.