LG Electronics has moved further toward its aim of improving its performance in the smartphone market, by announcing new technologies and features which will be used in devices expected to reach the market before the end of 2010. The ambitious South Korean company said that it will introduce a “series of fast, powerful smartphones starting in the fourth quarter of 2010 utilising the second generation NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor, Tegra 2”. The silicon is said to deliver “unprecedented power, speed and graphics capability”, with the product line including “the first mobile dual-core CPU”, which will deliver two-times faster web browsing and five-times faster gaming performance than 1GHz single-core chips. Separately, LG’s Korean rival Samsung has also launched its first dual-core processor for mobile phones, which is expected to be released to “select” customers in the fourth quarter of 2010 – meaning Samsung devices using the silicon are unlikely to be available in volume before 2011.

LG also said that its anticipated Optimus 7 smartphone will be able to share multimedia files with “all DNLA compliant digital devices”, automatically displaying capable devices in the same WiFi zone. While it has not been confirmed by the vendor, it is believed that Optimus 7 will be powered by Microsoft’s long-anticipated Windows Phone 7 platform. Microsoft and LG previously announced a deep smartphone partnership, and the vendor is widely expected to be among the first to offer a WP7 device – it is also believed that HTC is set to announced a WP7 handset as soon as next week, meaning it will be a close-run competition between the two for the top step of the podium. While LG has also not confirmed the use of the NVIDIA silicon in Optimus 7, if the device does have a cutting-edge processor it could enable the delivery of a user experience to rival the current benchmarks for rival platforms, including Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy X. Although LG is a top-three handset maker, its position has largely been built on low-cost devices for developing markets and feature phones, meaning it has lost-out on growth in the smartphone market. In addition, the smartphones it has offered have not had “flagship” qualities.