This is a direct reflection of the company’s expansion in the massive Indian smartphone marketplace.
LG Electronics India has now announced its intentions to double the number of mobile devices it will have to offer in 2016, as it plans to launch about 15 different smartphones across a range of different price points.
The new mobile phone offerings are meant to boost its overall revenue through mobile sales sources.
At the moment, LG Electronics brings in about 7 to 8 percent of its overall revenue through the sale of mobile devices in India. It currently sells about 13 models of cell phones in the country. That said, the sales that it has seen have been considered to be disappointing and the company is hoping to change that situation dramatically.
According to Ki Wan Kim, the managing director of LG Electronics India, “This year, performance of our mobile business has been disappointing. We will launch around 15 mobile models next year. In three years time, my target is to make all our product categories to contribute equally in percentage terms to our total sales… bring mobile sales to similar level of consumer durables.”
There are four main areas of mobile devices, including smartphones, that are the main focus of LG India.
Those four categories are currently mobile gadgets, home appliances, home entertainment, and air conditioners. While the company does plan to boost its sales within the country, it doesn’t have any intention to begin manufacturing in the market.
They had previously manufactured in India, but they have ceased that operation and haven’t any current intentions to return to the activity. Should the company consider returning to manufacturing in India, it will require sales to justify the decision. Ki Wan Kim stated that “Our future sales forecast should be stable to keep our factories operational.”
Among the main areas of focus for the sale of mobile devices in the country will be smartphones. This market has been seen as a massive opportunity by many handset makers due to the expansion of the demand for the technology and the relatively low penetration, so far, when compared to other markets.
In 2011, LG’s sale of smartphones had already reached 20 million units, said Strategy Analytics data. By 2012, that had increased to 26.3 million units, which shows a rapid rise in the sale of these mobile devices. Within the first half of last year, LG had already released an announcement that said that it had broken its own records in selling smartphones, after having sold 14.5 million of those mobile devices in the first six months. The company, itself, was already crediting the success of the G3 in South Korea for that achievement.