LG opens download centre in Pune

LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd (LGEIL), a leading consumer electronics and mobile handset manufacturer, has unveiled its first WOW LG Download Centre in Pune.

"The company is planning to set up 11 more such centres throughout the country by year end. We would be opening next WOW LG Centre in Mumbai, followed by Nagpur and Ahmedabad. We are putting an investment of about Rs one lakh for each such store apart from the land cost," said Praveen Valecha, regional product group head (south & west), GSM mobiles, LG.

With the launch of WOW LG Download Centre, the company aims at offering better opportunities for its customers to relate to the brand and avail of facilities such as free downloads-ringtones, wallpapers, games without pinching their pockets.

The basic idea behind the WOW LG Download Centre is to understand the needs of consumers and provide them with the latest add-ons to their LG GSM handsets.

"The primary concept behind the WOW LG Download Centre is to highlight the concept of WOWLG.com . WOWLG.com is a dedicated site for all the LG GSM mobile users, where they can download ringtones from 16-bit polyphonic tones to 64-bit polyphonic tones. The zones are classified as pop, hip-hop, dance, TV, soundtracks and classical, giving users a range of choices.

Apart from ringtones, mobile phone users can also make their own photo album, download graphics, play games and get a feel of LG GSM cell phones available in the country," said Valecha.

"Each month, we see an addition of two million customers to GSM services. We are expecting all those to become potential customers of WOW LG services. We are expecting at least 500 people to walk in every day in this centre. For the first six months, we will be running the centres on our own, afterwards we would like to offer it on a franchise basis. Currently, we are enjoying five per cent market share for GSM handsets. We have already sold 1.2 million handsets in a year ending December 2005 and expect a big rise by the fiscal end.