LG has been betting on its new range of lightweight laptops in Spain for a long time, but for now consumers are turning their back on it, as happened with their mobile phones. This is confirmed after having had access to the laptop sales figures between January and July 2021 in which LG does not appear anywhere, highlighting the resounding failure of its reference laptop. If it continues down this path, the firm’s computer division faces the same black future which ended up closing its mobile business.
The premium range of laptops is very well controlled by HP, Lenovo and of course Apple that has its unconditional audience. The rest of the brands have it difficult or impossible to penetrate this market with few exceptions such as Asus or Dell in certain product ranges. For this, we are going to know the Sales numbers of the first semester of the year.
Laptop sales January – July 2021
Laptop sales speak clearly of the market situation in the last 6 months. The great dominator is HP which remains with a 52.40% market share, slightly increasing its records from the same period of the previous year. The second position is for Lenovo with 27.8% of the market, although the firm falls somewhat compared to what was harvested in the first six months of 2020 precisely due to stock problems derived from the shortage of semiconductors. This situation could continue in the coming months as the economy reactivates and demand for chips continues to increase.
The third position is for Asus with 13.9% and there the list of brands with a significant presence closes. The rest of the cake is for Acer, Medion or MSI. If you look at the graph above, LG It would be contemplated within that pyrrhic 1.3% of market share that brings together dozens of manufacturers and where despite the efforts at the marketing level by the company, the results are not accompanying.
A high-end laptop without Windows 11?
When you make an investment of more than 1,600 euros in a laptop you expect several things. The first is performance, the second is good technical service, and the third is being able to use it for many years. That will not happen with the LG Gram as it could even run out of the ability to upgrade to Windows 11 when available as per HardZone colleagues point out.
Microsoft’s brand new operating system will leave thousands of computers behind, but always talking about models with many years and low ranges. Almost no computer purchased in 2020 or 2021 will be left without updating as it meets the minimum requirements of Windows 11.
The problem is that Intel does not include Trusted Execution in its G series notebook CPUs, better known as TPM, basic to have Windows 11. The processor Intel Core i7-1165G7 from LG Gram does not meet these conditions and, barring a last minute miracle, they will be unable to update to the latest operating system in a few months.
Tablets with detachable keyboard
Another of the segments that we have been able to learn about is the “detachables”, a product range that is in full growth. In this case Microsoft holds the lead with Surface with about 70% share while the remaining 30% is in the hands of Lenovo. It is clear that the brands that focus on a certain niche are the ones that end up succeeding. On the contrary, brands that try to finish too many product ranges end up closing divisions as happened to LG with its mobiles or Samsung with its old range of laptops.