Telecom Lead Asia: LG Electronics has sold 5 million LTE
smartphones. South Korea, U.S., Japan, and select markets in Europe and Asia
are driving the growth in LTE phones.
LG Electronics said after reaching sales of four million
LTE smartphones last month, an additional one million smartphones were sold in
the month of July – one LTE smartphone roughly every two and a half seconds.
South Korean electronics released its first LTE
smartphone – Revolution – in the United States last May via Verizon Wireless.
The company focuses on key markets with LTE capabilities
as it expands its reach, and more than 10 LTE smartphones from LG are now
available in these markets including South Korea, U.S., Japan, and select
markets in Europe and Asia.
The Optimus LTE handset is the most popular smartphone
with 2 million in sales, but the Optimus Vu: has shown fast growth by selling
over 500,000 units since March. The Optimus LTE II was also released in May
this year, which saw the fastest sales among all LTE smartphones, by reaching
half a million units in the first 70 days.
Park Jong-seok, president and CEO of LG Mobile
Communications, said sales of global LTE smartphones are expected to increase
10-fold this year from last year.
LG Mobile Communications is planning to introduce more
impressive LTE line-up in the next several months. Currently, more than ten LG
LTE smartphones are available in countries where LTE service is available.
According to a report by Jefferies & Company, LG is
the global leader in LTE patents with a value of over $8 billion.
Intellectual property consulting firm TechIPM analyzed
LTE-related patents registered to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the
second quarter of this year and reported that LG held the largest overall
number of patents as well.
