Telecom Lead Asia: LG Mobile Communications has posted 15 percent increase in fourth quarter revenue to $2.58 billion.
The substantial growth was driven by smartphones. Smartphone shipments grew 23 percent compared to the previous quarter, increasing to 8.6 million devices from the 7 million in the third quarter.
The growth in revenue was the highest of the year.
LG Mobile Communications has clocked 7 percent unit increase quarter-on-quarter in mobile handset shipments to 15.4 million.
It said more than half of the units are from smartphones.
Sales of premium LTE smartphones such as Optimus G and Vu:2 increased in the fourth quarter, as did the L-series and Google Nexus 4.
With more European and emerging markets introducing LTE services this year, LG plans to increase smartphone revenues and market share by launching follow-up devices to Optimus G and the L-series as well as the new F-series.
LG Electronics announced consolidated revenues of $45.22 billion and a net profit of $80.75 million for full-year 2012. Despite a 6 percent revenue decrease from 2011, operating profits increased significantly in 2012 to $1.01 billion from $342.06 million in full-year 2011.
Fourth quarter 2012 consolidated revenues were $12.37 billion with an operating profit of $98.08 million. Unaudited consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2012 showed a net loss of $428.96 million which reflects a fine related to alleged cathode-ray tube pricing issues imposed by the European Commission in December.
For 2012, LG Electronics is targeting a revenue goal of KRW 53.5 trillion with plans to spend KRW 2.5 trillion in capital expenditures.
MARKET SHARE OF SMARTPHONE VENDORS IN Q4 2012
Samsung is leading the smartphone and mobile phone market in Q4 2012. Samsung’s market share in smartphone business in 2012 was 30.4 percent against Apple’s 19.4 percent.
