Jew World Order

LG, which has struggled over the past few years to make a major impact in the smartphone business, is looking to LTE, HD displays and quad-core chips to set itself apart.

The newly announced LG Optimus 4X HD, the company’s flagship smartphone for 2012.
(Credit: CBSi)

LG is relying on consumers’ need for speed to drive sales of its mobile devices, a bet that the company hopes will pay off with a larger foothold in the smartphone market.

The company’s product line-up for Mobile World Congress (MWC), which was announced throughout last week, illustrates its increasing use of high-end components. The phones include Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core chips, high-resolution and 3D displays, better battery life, an embrace of the latest Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android and the ability to tap into the super-fast 4G LTE network.

The devices on hand on Sunday were the Optimus 4X HD, which includes the Tegra 3 chip and HD display, the Optimus 3D Max, the 5-inch Optimus Vu, a quasi-phone tablet device similar to the Galaxy Note and a number of affordable, style-centric phones under its L series of devices.

“We lost our focus,” Ramchan Woo, who runs the smartphone division for LG, acknowledged in a discussion of the company’s past struggles. “We’re going back to the fundamentals.”

LG figures that since it makes several components for the iPhone, it could easily have a hit product in its own hands. Woo noted that LG’s various divisions make the display, battery and camera for the iPhone. Rather than using different components from various vendors for a Frankenstein device, it can create a more integrated handset in-house, Woo said in an interview with CNET.

LG hopes that its move to the high end will help it break through the smartphone market. Once dominant in the mobile-phone category, it has struggled to see the same kind of success with smartphones. At the same time, rivals such as HTC, Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics have seen a number of blockbuster phones emerging from their earlier embrace of Android.

There is certainly an opening for LG. Samsung has emerged as the only real powerhouse in Android, with HTC hitting a snag towards the end of last year and Motorola Mobility busy getting swallowed up by Google.

Woo touted the Optimus 4X HD’s combination of the Tegra 3 chip, true HD screen, slim design, bigger battery, and LTE connection as an example of LG’s “no compromise” vision for a product.

“We want to make these phones easy to sell,” he said, boasting that he is willing to go toe to toe with competing devices in a specs battle.

The move to the high end marks a reversal of the company’s previous strategy, which was to sell a more affordable smartphone to mass-market consumers. The problem, however, was that the company lacked a high-end model for people to aspire to buy, and its products were largely lost in the shuffle. Even now, there is a decided lack of enthusiasm from carriers and consumers about LG products.

Even with last year’s Optimus 2X, which was the first dual-core smartphone in the market, Woo acknowledged that there were a lot of compromises to the device that didn’t make it a must-buy.

A competitive product line-up has the carriers more excited for LG this year, Woo said.

Towards the second half of 2011, LG worked to improve its line-up, getting 3D and LTE devices out to meet the carriers’ needs. In the fourth quarter, LG reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss, thanks in part to higher smartphone sales. Executives have cautioned that the strength may have been due to holiday sales, and aren’t ready to declare a resurgence yet.

High-end strategy, low-end strategy

LG plans to be aggressive by packing in the specs. Woo said that the company plans to offer only LTE smartphones to carriers that offer the network, including ATT and Verizon Wireless in the US.

“LG will leverage LTE speed and quad-core processing, two of the hottest trends in 2012,” said Danny Hernandez-Ortega, director of marketing in Europe for LG.

LG isn’t planning on spending a massive amount on marketing, so the phones will, in effect, have to sell themselves, Woo said.

Alongside the Optimus 4X HD is the Galaxy Note-like Optimus Vu, a 5-inch mobile device that LG considers a large smartphone, as opposed to a small tablet. The Galaxy Note, however, has been criticised for its size. Woo acknowledged that the Vu isn’t for everyone, and said that it will largely be a tool for business users.

Likewise, he doesn’t believe that the Galaxy Note’s initial negative response will hurt sales of the Vu, and applauded Samsung for working to create a new category of large smartphones.

LG, meanwhile, isn’t completely abandoning its mass-market strategy, which the company is addressing with its L series of phones. The devices will be priced competitively, but Woo said that competing devices in this segment wouldn’t match what LG packs in its devices. No other mass-market device will have the same big screen, thin profile, battery life or internal specs as the L phones, he said, adding that most of the carriers around the world have committed to selling it.

“This year, we’re going for everyone in the market, from top to bottom,” Woo said.

Via CNET