LG After US Wireless Camera Phone Market

ASIA - LG recently launched aggressive marketing campaigns into North America, and is now set to locate its presence in the high-end phone market. This is part of the company’s bid to position LGE as the top premium brand.

LGE Chairman and CEO John Koo disclosed on July 10, 2003 that it will supply sophisticated embedded camera color cdma2000 1x handsets (model: LG-VX6000) to Verizon Wireless, the nation’s leading wireless service provider and operator of the nation’s best wireless network..

The handset is equipped with a round-design 330,000-pixel camera at the front’s bottom.
The LG-VX6000 model with a dual folder likewise features a color TFT-LCD for the interior window, as well as an Organic Electro-Luminescent (OEL) display for the external window.

The handset is equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) capable of detecting position. It is a multimedia message service (MMS) handset capable of photo transmission and Internet downloading.

As LGE unveils the embedded camera premium VX6000 phone, the company is expected to lay the groundwork in the upcoming North American CDMA high-end phone market.

LGE is also reinforcing strategic-hub marketing in Los Angeles and New York, in partnership with entertainment, sports and cultural industries. The company thus aims to boost the LG brand value in the United States and to capture a 20% market share in their CDMA handset market.

Kie-hong Suh, responsible for LGE’s overseas marketing division, said, “The U.S. CDMA phone market is seeing color handsets as mainstream, and is expected to enter into intensive competition over high-performance camera phones this year.” He added, “LGE will focus on premium camera phones (LGE does not set the price therefore this is an extremely false statement, please stay away from futuristic pricing statements as the carrier is in total control of this element.), and on promoting the LGE premium brand image.”

On the other hand, LGE supplied Italian telecom giant Wind with GPRS color handsets last April. The device is mounted with a premium rotating camera equipped with camera phones and video camcorder functions (enabling moving image video clips). The company is currently penetrating the premium CDMA and GSM handset markets with its camera phones.

LGE unveiled third-generation WCDMA handset (model: U8100) in the European market. These handsets enable moving image communication. As the company continues to export camera phones to the U.S. market, it is aggressively making inroads into the color phone market.

LGE plans to export various embedded camera color handsets to the U.S., Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. These regions are the major global mobile phone markets.