Mobile major LG Electronics, which has launched its 4G LTE device LG G3 in India on Monday, is looking to grab a share of the smartphone pie and is expecting that smartphones will to contribute about 40% to its total revenue in the second half of this financial year.
With this the company’s is looking at a market share of 10% from the current 4% in the same period, according to media reports.
Soon Kwon, Managing Director of LG India, said that he was expecting Rs 2,500 Crore revenue this fiscal year from its smartphone business, triple from a year earlier. The company is investing Rs 800 Crore for R&D and marketing its mobile phones in 2014-2015. The company on the whole is investing some Rs 8,000 Crore in its India business this year, which includes TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and other consumer durables in the country, apart from mobile phones.
Kwon said in the report that by the end of this year, LG plans to launch 25 smartphones, priced between Rs 8,000 to Rs 65,000, which would also include a new affordable range of 4G LTE smartphones in the second half of the year.
While India’s smartphone market is led by Samsung, followed by Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Nokia, experts believe newer players will continue to eat into the market shares of existing players. While players such as Motorola and Philips re-entered the market, Chinese vendors like Lenovo, Xiaomi Gionee and Sony are also making their way into the country’s vibrant mobile market.
Kwon too is not perturbed by competition. “We are seeing more congestion in the market, which is a natural trend across the global. However, you need to have core competency to sustain and grow your business. LG will take the benefit of the competition,” he added.
According to IDC, the Indian smartphone market nearly tripled to 44 million devices shipped in 2013, compared to 16.2 million shipped over 2012. The research body expects 80.57 million units to be shipped into India by the end of 2014.
LG, which expects its share to touch 10% by this year end, may consider local manufacturing of its devices at a later stage, Kwon informed the newspaper. The country is also looking at the Indian market as a lucrative destination for Android Wear-based Smartwatch and has rolled out LG G Watch in the country at Rs 15,000. The company is reportedly bringing more smartwatches and tablets to the market in the coming quarters.
