Eyeing to double its market share to 11 per cent in the fast growing GSM mobile telephony, world's third largest mobile phone maker LG Electronics today said it will launch 50 handsets by the end of 2009 in the Indian market.     

"The number of product line-up has doubled as compared to 2008. We plan to launch 50 handsets by the end of December and aim to keep our market share over 11 per cent there (India)," Bo H Choi, Head (Asia Pacific Region), Mobile Communication Company of LG Electronics told PTI.     

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He pointed out the company would be eyeing India as one of the important investment destinations since the demand from developed economies are witnessing a saturation.     

In terms of global sales, LG is the third-largest behind Nokia and Samsung. The South Korean entity is ahead of Motorola and Sony Ericsson.     

Noting that demand for mobile phones are rising in India, Choi said, "We would be doing India-specific product planning and the design, colour and finishing would also depend on the choice of Indian customers.

"LG is also planning to increase the production capacity at its manufacturing plant at Pune, India. The handsets manufactured at the facility are exported to the Middle East, African and Asian markets.     

At present, the Pune plant produces 5 lakh units of handsets.     

LG launched its new smart phone models — Crystal, GM 730 and Viewty Smart — here today. The three models are touch screen phones with upgraded and user-friendly features. While LG GM 730 would be available globally in July, the firm plans to bring the three smart phones to the Indian market by September.     

"The product would be priced over Rs 25,000 when we bring the product to the Indian market by September," Choi said after the launch.     

In 2008, globally the company sold 100.8 million handsets to claim about nine per cent of the market share.      

"With the economies worldwide recovering from the downturn, we are planning to increase out mobile sales and our target for 10 per cent market share remains intact.

We would be coming out with 15 new devices, including three handsets running on Google Inc's Android software  globally by the end of this year," LG Electronics Vice President (Head of new business) John Park said.

The company has collaborations with Microsoft Corp, for providing enhanced features on its smart phones. It also plans to launch its own store to provide access of digital content like music and games to its customers.     

"We would be launching the application store by next month immediately after the launch of GM 730," Park said.

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