LG Aims for Great Gains in 2011 Smartphone Sales
After suffering from sluggish sales of low-end phones last year, LG hopes to make a comeback in 2011 by focusing on premium products. At the Mobile World Congress 2011, the company announced its ambitious goal of selling 150 million handsets around the world, with one-fifth of them expected to be smartphones.
LG, the world's no.3 handset manufacturer after Nokia and Samsung, sold around 7 million smartphones globally last year. This year it aims high by targeting a four-fold increase to more than 30 million units, which will account for 50 percent of its total handset revenues. Including other types of phones, the company plans to increase the shipments to 150 million units, up 30 percent over 2010.
Due to a late start in the smartphone arena and its aging handset lineup, LG has been struggling with a declining global market share (8.4 percent last year compared with 10.1 percent a year earlier), according to market researcher IDC.
To make a turnaround, LG intends to introduce 20 new smartphone models this year. Its focus will be put on high-end devices that embrace the latest technologies, such as dual-core processors, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 3D display, so as to challenge Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S. Meanwhile, the company will improve its content and services through partnerships with content providers. It will also invest heavily to boost its overall capacity and expand its research and development workforce by 15 percent to over 6,000 employees.
"We are already focusing all of our resources on delivering the widest variety of smart devices for all types of customers," said Park Jong-seok, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications, in a statement. "This will be a critical year for LG and a lot of eyes are upon us to see if we'll succeed. We don't intend to let them down."
LG's strategies seem to be on the right track. It should be interesting to see whether they can actually bring a reversal of fortune to LG's handset division.
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