LG Breaks Records and Moves Closer to Rivals

November 23, 2004 - source: BWCS

Korean electronics giant LG has reported a noticeable jump in shipments of its 3G and other mobile handsets in October. According to the Seoul-based company, phone sales were up 68% on the same period in 2003, thanks to orders from Hutchison and Orange. The Korean vendor, currently ranked fifth in the world league of phone sellers, believes it will be in the top three within three years.

The recent boom in sales reflects strong demand for LG’s high-end camera phones and 3G terminals. The company’s figures for October saw a 27% jump in month-on-month sales of mobile handsets. In the three month period to the end of September 2004, LG shipped 11.8 million phones, in October alone it managed to sell 5.09 million handsets. At the same time, LG reported that it had increased the margin on each phone sale to 7%, compared to the average of 6.4% in the previous quarter.

With increasing orders coming from European operators for its 3G phones, Telefonica Moviles was added to its roster of clients earlier this month; LG believes it will take 15% of the global market for mobile handsets by 2007. However, to do this it will have to more than double it current share of the world market which, according to Strategy Analytics, stands at 7%, just ahead of SonyEricsson. LG now has Samsung and Siemens in its sights.