[Courtesy of LG Electronics]
SEOUL -- LG Electronics has changed its strategy in targeting foreign markets by releasing new smartphones which are not yet released at home. The South Korean tech giant will release Q7, the smaller, budget version of the company's latest flagship G7 ThinQ and another exclusive model in June.
According to LG's previous announcements, Q7 will be released in Europe, the United States and other countries such as India on July 11. The Q lineup was first introduced in July last year, with premium features such as the same DAC (digital to analog sound converter) and a camera which are fitted into LG's flagships. The only difference is that the Q series has downgraded RAM and storage.
Yonhap News, a South Korean news agency, reported citing industry officials that the tech giant will release Q7 in the European market, the U.S. market and in other countries this month, simultaneously with G7, which was released at home in early May. The officials stated that LG aims to attract consumers who are looking for premium phones and those who seek for cheap but reliable phones.
The officials also said LG will release V35, an exclusive model for customers of AT&T, an American telecom company, on June 8. V35 is said to be an upgraded version of V30, LG's premium phone released last year, but no exact details have been disclosed yet.
According to Smartprice, an Indian online shopping mall, Q7 comes with a price tag of RS19,000 ($283), about $500 cheaper than the official price of G7 ThinQ's price tag of $750. The online shopping mall said it will start receiving orders in early June and will start to ship the budget phones at the end of this month.
LG's new strategy of targeting both the premium phone market and the budget phone market is similar to that of Apple's. Apple released cheaper models --iPhone 5C and iPhone SE -- in 2013 and 2016 to attract emerging markets such as India and Southeast Asian countries while targeting the premium market with its premium iPhone series. Apple is the top seller in the global smartphone market, taking 19.7 percent share in the 4Q of 2017, according to the International Data Corporation, an American market research company.
Samsung, the world's second-largest smartphone maker, also targets the global budget phone market with it’s A and C series while attracting picky consumers with expensive tastes with its flagship models. The C series by Samsung is an exclusive lineup just for the Chinese market.
Just like the competitors, LG seems to be looking towards emerging markets to expand its consumer base. India’s smartphone market is currently the world’s second-largest and has seen fast and steady growth over the years with an expected 1 billion smartphone users in 2020. As of 2017, Samsung is the leading smartphone vendor in India, followed by Xiaomi and Lenovo.
This story was contributed by Jazin Wee, an editorial assistant.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
