14 DAY TRIAL // LG Electronics seems to have a great time as a mobile phone maker lately. Not long after announcing that its Cookie phone sold in more than 2 million units and that it expects to be able to ship more than 10 million units of the device in 2009, we also learn that the company has recently passed the 20 million mark when it comes to the QWERTY handsets it delivered around the world since 2005. And as the icing on the cake, the Korean manufacturer also announced that it had received more than 2 million orders for its recently released LG Arena.
While the number of QWERTY phones sold since 2005, when it launched Verizon’s VX9800, might not look too impressive to some, they should take a look at the sales volumes during the past year, for things are getting interesting there. Back in 2005, LG only shipped 350,000 units, but managed to double the number the next year, when sales rose up to 600,000. The following year, 2007, offered the company the possibility to ship almost five times that number, as the volume reached 2.7 million. And that is not all, as in 2008 LG sold around 12.7 million QWERTY devices, and one should agree that the growth over the previous year is impressive.
The company's messaging phones registered great success in the US, as its LG enV shipped in more than 8 million units, while the Rumor series sold more than 6 million. Another popular series is Voyager, which reached 3.5 million. The fact that its handsets have seen such great popularity in the US helped LG reach 20.8 percent mobile market share in North America, registering a significant growth compared to the 15.8 percent in 2007.
Its QWERTY handsets are not the only ones that see a lot of traction on the market, as the newly launched Arena has also become quite a popular device. The phone is already available in Europe, where it sells for the retail price of €399, and the Taiwanese division of LG states that more than 2 million units have been ordered all around the world. Undoubtedly, Arena has great chances to become one of the most popular phones in 2009, along with the LG Cookie or Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, or the Samsung Omnia HD and Apple’s third-generation iPhone.