LGE looks to sell one million mobile handsets in Mideast by 2003-end

Published September 18th, 2002 - 03:00 GMT

Korean digital manufacturer LG Electronics has been ranked among the world's top six mobile phone handset suppliers for the second quarter of this year with a market share of 3.8 percent, according to a report published by market research company Strategy Analytics.

"The Middle East and Africa contributed substantially to this performance with the successful entry into the mobile market within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and lower Gulf. We now plan to be among the leading GSM mobile suppliers in this region by the end of next year, with a regional sales target of a million phones," stated M.B. Shin, president of LG Electronics’s Middle East and Africa Operations.

LG was also the sixth largest in the world in the first half of this year with a 3.5 percent share of the global market, while last year was it ranked ninth worldwide in the global supply volume and market share league. This year's leap by three places saw LG beat leading competitors such as Alcatel and Kyocera.

According to Strategy Analytics, LG supplied over 3.7 million CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) handsets in the second quarter after delivering 3.1 million handsets in the first quarter of this year. In the second quarter of this year, LGE sold over 5.1 million handsets

outside Korea.

LGE's handset business is expected to grow for the third quarter with the securing of a $100 million contract in India and a healthy reception in the UAE and lower Gulf for the company's recently-launched B1200 'bar-type' dual band phone, according to a company press release. — (menareport.com)