LG readies big bang touch play this year

LG Electronics looks set to be the second brand to join the high-octane touchscreen party in India after Samsung. The company announced a drastic revamp of its product line-up, marketing and distribution, to treble its sales in the country, where it has just 6% of the market. The touchscreen segment, the hottest growing segment currently dominated by Samsung, accounted for around 12% of the total number of mobiles sold in India last year. Touchscreens are widely expected to double their share to around 25% this year.

The preference for touchscreens—the Achilles’ heel for market leader Nokia—and the financial troubles at Motorola and Sony Ericsson threw up tens of percentage points of market share for grabs in 2009. LG, which managed to double its market share from 3% to 6% in 2009, says it is ready to claim its share this year.
“We will launch 40 new models this year and treble our marketing spends to Rs 300 crore,” says Sudhin Mathur, head of LG’s mobile division in India. With all this, Mathur expects to no less than treble his India revenues to Rs 3,000 crore this year and raise market share to 10%.

LG, which kicked off the touchscreen revolution in India along with Samsung in late 2008, was soon relegated to the second place by its ‘country cousin’. “We have learnt a lot of things from 2009, and this year we will have our strategy in place,” Mathur said. Mathur showed off some of the new phones, including what may be India’s first Android phone with a qwerty-keypad that is likely to appeal to productivity-oriented customers. The current crop of Android phones in the country is designed primarily for multimedia users and usually support only on-screen keyboards.

Also lined up is what may be India’s first truly wide-screen multimedia phone, the BL40, which also doubles as a high-definition movie screen. It is priced at Rs 25,000. The new models are also likely to push down prices further. Samsung is currently the price leader in the touchscreen segment, with touch-enabled, keypad-less models starting at just around Rs 7,000.

The cheapest touch-enabled phone with a qwerty keypad and 3G is also from Samsung and costs around Rs 11,000. “This year will bring touch to the masses and models will breach the Rs 5,000-price mark,” Mathur predicts. As a first step, the company is ready with a 3G-enabled, qwerty touchscreen phone priced at just Rs 10,000. Android phones are likely to touch the Rs 10,000 mark as well this year, from Rs 14,000 currently, he said.