LG Takes Lion’s Share of Nascent European 3G Handset Market

ASIA : (09/06/2005, BWCS ) Just as Nokia realigned its growth projections higher, but admitted 3G weakness in Europe, rival mobile phone maker LG Electronics reported that it shipped 1 million 3G handsets in Europe during the first three months of 2005. According to the Korean company’s figures, it was the leading seller of 3G-enabled phones during this period, with a market share of 25.5%.

A company spokesman, quoting figures from a recent IDC report, said “We outpaced other world-leading handset makers in Europe.” IDC reported that the size of Europe’s W-CDMA market was around 8.1 million units last year. During 2004 LG worked hard on increasing its presence in Europe, setting up partnerships with some of the biggest 3G providers in the region: Hutchison, Orange in France, and Telefonica in Spain.

LG also recently signed a supply deal with Cingular Wireless in the US to deliver W-CDMA handsets for the second half of this year. Park Mun-hwa, President of Mobile Communications at LG Electronics, said: “Based on our leadership in the W-CDMA market, we will boost penetration into GSM/GPRS/EDGE markets, and spur efforts to develop 3.5G HSDPA mobile handsets.”

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