LG Electronics said it shipped 12.1 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2013, a new quarterly unit sales record for the company.

The company made a similar claim for the first quarter, when it shipped 10.3 million smartphones, indicating that it is seeing some positive momentum in the market.

But it was not all good news for the company, as its profit declined from the previous sequential quarter on weaker demand in the Korean market, lower average selling prices due to increased competition, and higher marketing investments.

It said that moving forwards, shipments of mass-market smartphone models such as the L-Series II and F-Series are expected to drive sales growth, while high-end products such as G Pro and the anticipated G2 “should increase the company’s product competitiveness”.

It also expects the market size to grow, especially for LTE phones, but competition to intensify for market share gains.

For the quarter, the company’s handset unit saw an operating income of KRW61 billion ($54.8 million), compared with a loss of KRW30 billion in the prior-year quarter, on revenue of KRW3.12 trillion, up 37 per cent from KRW2.29 trillion.

It is the third consecutive quarter of profit for the recovering handset business.

On a group level, LG reported a net profit of KRW156 billion, which while down year-on-year, “improved significantly from the previous quarter”.

Revenue increased 10.1 per cent year-on-year to KRW15.23 trillion.