Let’s face it, when we think of LG, we don’t normally think of an overly successful smartphone maker but, it seems this might change as the company has been doing pretty well recently. It’s now revealed that the Korean outfit has now sold 5 million LTE phones, which is a high number indeed, for an emerging technology like LTE. LG started its LTE tear back in May of 2011 and this May the ticker clicked 3 Million, 4 Million in June and it’s has just clicked that 5 Million mammoth figure. Of these healthy sales, 2 Million belong to the Optimus LTE and 500,000 to the Optimus Vu, with the Optimus LTE II selling the same amount within its first 70 days on sale.
LG are now looking to bring the Vu phablet, to Verizon, to compete with AT&T’s and finally T-Mobile’s Galaxy Note from their dear rival, Samsung, as well as taking the device Globally as well. With the Galaxy Note 2 on the horizon it could be time for LG to bring their own refresh but, their CEO, Dr. Jon-seok Park believes that the company’s LTE phones hitting in the coming months will be “second to none”. Of course, with increased marketing and sales comes increasing interest and malice from other players in the game looking for patent litigation and LG aren’t afraid one bit. The Korean company has roughly $8 Billion in LTE patents as well as the “largest overall” amount of patents, which is verified by TechIPM, a consultancy firm.
I, myself, have always had a soft spot for LG’s devices, wondering how they can make okay-looking hardware and yet still fall behind in both build quality as well as poor software. Not to mention not only the lack of software support for older models but, also the confusing manner in which LG make promises and then crush them. With the LG Optimus LTE II – seriously, couldn’t get a better name than that? – the company seemed to have made good on both their hardware and software with added value rather than the usual messing about with Android’s perfectly fine UI. Whether or not LG can bring some truly stunning phones to market before the end of the year is something we’ll have to see but, I wouldn’t hold your breath.