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Regional: Press Release: LG to Push Premium Mobile Handsets in East African Market |
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Saturday, 27 September 2008 |
Electronics and Home Appliance manufacturer, LG has invested USD50m (KES3.6bn) in the region to gain a foothold for their premium mobile phone handsets. The LG Nairobi Liaison Office General Manager, Mr. Byung Su Lee said the money will be used to import, the company's range of premium mobile handsets, create awareness through marketing the handsets and carry out a market research for the products within the region. “As you know, the Eastern Africa region is one of the emerging mobile phone markets and LG has started to give a very big focus to the region,” said Lee.
The company has earmarked USD2m (KES145m) for marketing. LG markets its handsets in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. Lee said the company has projected to increase its sales in these markets by over 50%, from over 500,000 handsets sold last year, to 1 million by 2009. The marketing is expected to levelise the challenge paused by cheap and low quality handsets from the Far East markets which have saturated the region. “We shall do this by continuing to position LG phones at the premium level with its entire product range of premium low, premium medium and premium high handsets,” said Lee. Lee was speaking at the launch of the company's premium medium handset, the LG-KF510 at the Nairobi Intercontinental Hotel on Tuesday 23rd, 2008.
The handset incorporates an auto luminance control (ALC) technology that enables it save battery power a maximum of 29 per cent longer than previously introduced handsets. It reflects the trend in the mobile market industry, where manufacturers are including features which drain batteries like LCD colour screens for browsing the Internet and watching videos. “The longer lasting battery power allows for more convenient use of the high technology features like camera's MP3 players, radio, and video players,” said Mr. Anthony Hutia, the company's GSM/CDMA Regional Marketing Manager.
Hutia said the ALC sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the numeric key pad, LCD screen back light and the LED interactive touch. “Under intense sunlight, these lighting utilities decrease their brightness and thus save energy,” said Hutia. At 10.9 mm thick, the KF510 is very slim, with a screen scratch proof feature that guarantees the phone durability. It also comes with a 3megapixel lens that allows owners better view of videos and photos.
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