AT&T is getting ready to start selling the LG Shine 2 on their network for $120, staring on November 22. The Shine 2 has a 2.2″ screen with Multi-Angle Vision. It also has a HSDPA Internet connection with access to AT&T Navigator. The camera is 2 megapixel and includes flash and video recording. There is an image editor built in and a music player with an equalizer. The $120 price requires a 2 year contract.
In the third quarter of 2009, the smartphone mobile market soared like an eagle. About 290.5 million smartphones were sold in the quarter which is an increase of 5.6% from the year before. Between the five major telecommunications companies, all of them sold more phones in this quarter than the previous quarter. However Motorola slipped into 5th place behind Sony Ericsson this quarter. Samsung and LG broke new sales records this quarter too.
Samsung shipped over 60 million phones this quarter which is the highest they have ever done. Below is the break-down of the numbers provided by our friends over at UnwiredView:
* Nokia – 108.5 million units, 37.3% market share
* Samsung – 60.2 million units, 20.7% market share
* LG – 31.6 million units, 10.9% market share
* Sony Ericsson – 14.1 million units, 4.9% market share
* Motorola – 13.6 million units, 4.7% market share
* Others – 60.1 million units, 21.5% market share
Given that Wally World is the biggest retail company in the world, it is inevitable for them to offer a phone service that one-ups what other telecommunications companies have to offer.
Walmart is beta testing a program called Straight Talk. Straight Talk is a wireless service that will not require a contract and costs only $45 per month for an unlimited minutes, messages, and data plan. There will also be a $30 plan that offers 1,000 minutes, 1,000 SMS and text messages, and 30MB data.
However the phones that will work with the plan retails for $100. These phones include the LG Slider 290 and the “Samsung 451.” The Samsung 451 is expected to have a QWERTY kayboard. The LG Slider 290 does not have that many features.
“It has been very encouraging to see the excitement and response to the Straight Talk pilot in 234 stores that began last summer at Walmart,” stated Walmart U.S. VP of Media Services Greg Hall in a press release. “In light of the savings customers continue to need, we have worked very quickly to extend this offering to all of our Walmart customers nationwide, and just before the holidays.”
LG Electronics has announced the LG-GW620, the company’s first phone powered by Google Android. The GW620 has a 3″ touchscreen with a QWERTY keypad. LG will be launching 13 smartphones over the next 16 months that run on Windows Mobile.
“The LG-GW620 will appeal to first-time smartphone customers by offering a new and different kind of user experience,” stated LG Electronics Mobile Communications President and CEO Dr. Skott Ahn in a press release. “Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers. This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”
LG Electronics will soon be releasing the LG GW880 on China Mobile. The phone will be powered by the OPhone OS. OPhone OS is based on the Google Android operating system.
The OPhone has an interface like the iPhone and there is an application store called the Mobile Market for the phone. The OPhone SDK is compatible with the Android SDK.
The LG GW880 works with a 3G connection and TD-SCDMA/EDGE. The LG GW880 also has a 3.5″ touch screen, WVGA resolution, GPS, Bluetooth, 5 megapixel camera, 512 MB ROM/256MB RAM.
Epson Imaging Devices has plead guilty to price fixing LCD screens that were sold to Motorola. As a result, the company will be paying $26 million for the conspiracy. Epson Imaging Devices is a subsidiary of Seiko Epson. Motorola used the LCD panels for their Razr mobile phone devices between 2005 and 2006.
During the time of the conspiracy, Epson was called Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Epson for meeting with competitors and agreeing to set the prices of LCDs that were sold to Motorola.
This past December, LG made a similar confession to the U.S. DOJ. LG was sentenced to pay $400 million for price-fixing LCDs. Around the same time Sharp paid $120 million for the same charge. Sharp fixed the prices of LCDs that were sold to Apple, Motorola, and Dell.
About one month later, Chunghwa Picture Tubes plead guilty and was forced to pay $65 million. This past May, Hitachi paid $31 million for selling fixed-price LCDs to Dell.
Recently LG held a competition called “Design The Future.” In this competition, participants were asked to design concept mobile LG phones. One of the cooler-looking phones in the competition is called the “LG Traveler phone.” This phone has a hexagonal shape and works by touchscreen.
The phone also has a sliding keypad. The phone has a rubber coated grip around the two sides. There is also a ready to go folder that works well with connecting to others that have Bluetooth. The Traveler also has GPS with a favorites option. Other features include photo cropping, LED caller display, and 5 megapixel camera.
Specifications of LG phones have a tendency to leak early. This time an LG phone by the name of the BL20 has been revealed through an XML file. This is the third phone in the Black Label series.
The first two were the LG BL40 and the BL 42. The LG BL20 has a 320×240 display and keypad hardware. According to the XML file, there is a 1×1 pixel aspect ratio and there are three softkeys built in to the keypad. The phone will have a GSM/UMTS 3G connection.
LG Electronics has officially confirmed the BL40 Chocolate phone for their Black Label series. The black phone with the red trim has a 4″ wide screen and a 800×345 pixel display with 21:9 aspect ratio. The built in camera is 5 megapixel and uses a Schneider-Kreuznach lens. The connectivity of the phone is 7.2 Mbps UMTS/HSDPA. The new Chocolate has WiFi, aGPS, and will be available in the third quarter of this year across 54 countries.
LG has announced a new phone called the Aigen LG-GM730 phone earlier this week, powered by Windows Mobile. The S-Class 3D user interface will be built on top of the WinMo 6.1 operating system to make the phone more user-friendly. The Aigen also features a 3″ WQVGA touchscreen display, aGPS, FM radio tuner, WiFi, 5 megapixel camera, and auto-focus. The phone is 11.9 mm thick. The phone is available in black, chrome, and pink colors. The phone is available in Korea as of right now, but price hasn’t been announced yet.
LG Electronics has announced the GM550 smartphone which is powered with the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, 2.4″ QVGA display, QWERTY keyboard, 3 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 2Mbps HSUPA, stereo speakers, 1300 mAh battery, etc. Pricing and a release date has not yet been announced.
The LG-GD910 was first written about on Pulse 2.0 in December 2008. There was no launch date or pricing availability back then, but now more information is starting to surface. The GD910 watch phone will start shipping on the Orange network in Europe starting next month. After that it will arrive on several carriers in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Australia. The GD910 has a 1.43″ touchscreen LCD, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, video calling, and media playback. The phone is going to be 13.9mm thick. The phone also has Bluetooth support.
Verizon Communications will be selling the LG Glance VX7100 for $49 on June 5th after a $50 mail in rebate and 2 year contract. Other paid options include $119 after $50 mail in rebate and one year contract, $119 after $50 mail in rebate and prepaid plans, and $219 for full retail.
The specs of the phone include:
- CDMA with 1xRTT connectivity
- 2.00″, 320×240, 262K Color TFT display
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- GPS, VZ navigator-capable
- Bluetooth (headset, hands-free, and object push restricted)
- Texting, picture messaging, and voice messaging
- Media center, Mobile Email, Mobile web, IM, Chat, Chaperone parent/child feature, and voicemail
- Speakerphone
- Voice commands
- English/Spanish
- 2.5mm Headset jack
- Dimensions: 4.31×1.87×0.38
- Weight: 2.92 oz.
- Usage time: up to 260 minutes / standby time of 350 hours
LG Electronics announced a new line of TV sets that are 5.9mm thick and come in 42″ and 47″ models. The 42″ weighs 13 pounds and the 47″ weighs 16 pounds. The TVs use an edge-lit LED backlight system with a Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp scheme.
“The development of the world’s slimmest LCD TV panel demonstrates our leading edge-lit LED backlight technology that enables thinner designs in addition to our direct-lit type LED backlight assembly which delivers superior picture quality,”stated LG Display CTO and EVP Chung In-Jae.
Both TVs have an HD resolution of 1920×1080 and is 10-bit with a brightness level of 450 cd/ms. The viewing angles are 178/178. The 42″ uses 100 watts of power and the 47″ uses 130 watts.
Samsung and LG Electronics are two companies that are very established in the touchscreen mobile market. As a major milestone, each company has sold over 20 million handsets. On a monthly basis, that amounts to about 1.6 million handsets sold per month since both companies started about two years ago.
