South Korean vendor LG Electronics has reiterated aggressive targets for its smartphone business, telling Dow Jones Newswires that it plans to launch ten new devices before the end of 2010, with sales targets of five million units for the year. However, in order to achieve this, the company is ramping-up its research and development activities and increasing its marketing spend, which means that it will take some time for the rewards to be seen at the bottom line. Although the company is a top-three handset manufacturer, it has achieved its position through low-cost devices for developing markets and featurephones for more advanced territories, meaning it has largely missed-out on smartphone growth so-far. While the company does not break-out its own smartphone figures, the article pointed to a Gartner report which indicated that in the second quarter of 2010, LG had a smartphone share of just 1.2 percent.

The issue for LG will be that it is not alone in targeting smartphones for growth. While its bigger rivals, Nokia and Samsung, already have established portfolios, it is also facing competition from Motorola and Sony Ericsson, both of which are looking to smartphones to reinvigorate their growth. LG will also find itself competing with dedicated specialists such as HTC and Research In Motion. Dow Jones said that LG is leading its attack with its Optimus line of smartphones (due for launch in September), including the “flagship” Optimus One. Rather than looking to take on Apple to achieve dominance at the high-end, it is looking to lure new smartphone users to the fold in the mid-tier – a tough market dominated by Nokia with its Symbian OS devices, where HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are also active, and where Huawei and ZTE stand to make an impact. LG also has some high-end products in the pipeline; it is set to launch a device with a dual-core Nvidia processor before the end of 2010; has tablet devices planned, again for 2010; and will launch its first LTE handset “early next year.”