LG’s cutting edge in the mass market

LG will launch up to 30 devices in the UK market next year, with a glut to win it market share and a limited range to confirm it as an innovative design house for mobile phones.

Basically, LG’s masterplan works on two points. For market share, it will maintain an active production line of well-featured devices like the KP500 Cookie for the mass market.

For its reputation, it will deliver a handful of innovative designs and new concepts, as it has with its Chocolate series, its 2007 touchscreen Prada handset and its 2009 GD910 3G watch phone.

LG Mobile UK sales and marketing director John Barton says the company will focus heavily on the low-to-mid range next year, with devices that will follow the KP500 Cookie trajectory and sustain good sales at lowering pricepoints through a period of time.

It will also release a series of wearable mobiles, pitched lower down the market than its current watch phone. February should see its first Android device, the GW620, too.

Higher-end devices such as the GW620, as well new design classics and forthcoming smartphones will be irregular in comparison, and allowed time to “breathe” in the market.

“Our raison d’etre is to design innovative devices for others to follow,” says Barton. “This is what will drive our success through 2010.”
Designer legacy

LG has design centres in Covent Garden, London, and in its hometown of Seoul, South Korea. The latter is the nerve centre for all its creativity and technical pyrotechnics. “Seoul is incredible. Science fiction becomes reality in the design centre.

Uptake of new technology in Eastern Asia leaves the UK far behind in many ways. People watch TV on the underground. They work at a remarkable pace,” says Barton.

Full article in Mobile News issue453 (November 30, 2009).

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