LG phones aim for 3rd post in global market

Despite its late entry in markets of developing countries such as the Philippines, LG Mobile phones is now looking at a stronger presence in the domestic and global arena.

Currently, LG is positioned in the fourth to fifth position based on market share and sales in its multinational operations.

Herbert Lapuente of LG Electronics Philippines said that their company’s goal is to occupy the top three spot in the global marketplace for the mobile phone industry in 2010.

He said that currently LG mobile phones occupy the top spot in the European market and the second top spot in America.

As they have started to aggressively market their products in other domestic markets, LG's positioning in the global marketplace is rapidly increasing.

In this aim, Lapuente said that LG has expanded its research and development networks and put up facilities in the United States of America, China, Korea, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia.

They also opened up design labs in other parts of the world such as in Japan, United Kingdom, India, Korea, US and China.

LG also expanded its manufacturing operations in its mobile division and last year, they were able to reach global sales of 80.5 million handsets.

Lapuente said that year on year, LG Mobile is able to reach 40 percent sales growth for its global operations.

LG has had received various awards and citations of their mobile phone products and designs.

They received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award and the IF Product Design Award as well as the CDMA Industry Achievement Award for its 3G phones.

Lapuente said that LG is a new player in the Philippines especially Cebu’s mobile market but they are aggressive in penetrating the area.

“As a global company, we had established presence in major foreign markets in the world but we have just started to penetrate the third world countries. We have mostly been focused in first world countries so we are a very popular brand in Europe, America, and Australia,” said Lapuente.

He also said that currently they are aggressive in making LG known in the Philippines especially in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in major cities in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.

He said that their edge over other mobile phone manufacturers in the market is that they have a set of differentiation in their product segmentations.

He said that each of their phone segments do not overlap with the features provided in other phone segments.

LG’s phone segments are composed of basic, camera, internet, broadcasting, music, smartphone and fashion phone segments.

He said that LG’s units are competitively priced against major competition, their basic phones or entry level phones are priced from P1, 900 to P8, 000 while high-end phones are priced from P20, 000 to P25, 000.

LG is an established Korean brand and is considered as a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications.

The company is comprised of four business units: Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display and Digital Media.— Rhia de Pablo