LG Electronics plans to boost mainland handset sales by the millions by the end of next year, despite being a latecomer to the rapidly growing market in China.
The South Korean firm expects to sell only about 128,000 code division multiple access (CDMA) handsets this year for China Unicom's network, and does not have a licence to manufacture the more popular global system for mobile communications (GSM) phones on the mainland.
But by next year, LG plans to sell more than three million phones in China, two-thirds of them for the GSM network.
'China is going to be our main area of growth in the future,' LG Electronics mobile handset division manager Lee Hye-woong said.
Mr Lee said LG would attempt to leverage the success of rival Korean firm Samsung Electronics, which he said had been successful in familiarising Chinese consumers with Korean handsets.
LG plans to target the higher-end of the handset market, with phones geared towards affluent, tech-savvy consumers. 'There are common things between Chinese consumers and Korean consumers in that they both want advanced phones,' Mr Lee said.