LG Plans to Sell 40 Million Smartphones in 2013 With Launch Of Optimus G Pro

By: Jeff Stewart  |   February 27th, 2013   |   News, O Canada, Smartphones

LG that has sold 26.3 million smartphones and lost a big chunk of its market share to ZTE and Huawei in 2012 but has now decided to shift gears and the electronics manufacturer is looking to sell about 40 million units of its smartphones during this year. It means that if LG manages to pull this off the company will see a radical increase in shipments which are expected to rise by 52 percent as compared to the previous year. According to the head of LG’s mobile-communications division, Park Jong Seok, the plan is actually a part of their new strategy to retreat from the basic handsets market. Seok made this statement before the start of 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

 

On the other hand in order to make this plan work, LG is working vigorously as it has recently introduced a new line-up of smartphones that also features the much talked about Optimus G Pro. The Korean company has huge expectations from its Optimus series phones which the manufacturer hopes will change their current image in the market. LG is generally considered a maker of average devices rather than a premium device manufacturer. Previously LG has sold more than one million units of the predecessor of Optimus G Pro in Korea, Japan, Canada and US during last November. This indicates that LG has the potential to make it big with its engineering capabilities.

 

Talking about LG’s strategy, Seoul-based LIG Investment & Securities Co’s analyst Kim Ki Young shared with Bloomberg that the Korean company’s strategy is no different than Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, which has also announced its One model in spite of the fact that its market share plunged by more than half in the last 18 month period. Even with a poor track record it is  expected the new device will be successful as Kim says, “LG’s brand image in the premium league has improved. The company also seems to have higher growth potential than HTC and BlackBerry.”

 

So the battle to become the third best smartphone manufacturer after Apple and Samsung is only getting more intense with time, as earlier BlackBerry introduced its latest BB10 platform to recapture its market share. At the same time Finnish mobile maker Nokia is also not out of the competition yet, as it has also introduced several new Windows based Lumia handsets and is announcing a few more at the Mobile World Congress.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Photo: Esato