Taipei, May 19 (CNA) South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. said Tuesday that it is planning a second flagship smartphone for release later this year as part of the company's efforts to launch two high-end handsets in the same year to boost sales in Taiwan.
LG began its "dual-flagship" strategy in Taiwan last year by launching the 5.9-inch G Pro 2 in March and the 5.5-inch G3 in June.
Combined sales of the two flagship phones had reached as much as 220,000 units as of April this year, including 60,000 to 70,000 units of the G Pro 2 and over 150,000 units of the G3, said Eason Shao (邵維君), director of mobile business unit at LG's Taiwan branch.
LG will continue its dual-flagship strategy this year with the new G4 and another flagship phone scheduled for release in the second half of 2015, hoping that combined sales of the two devices in Taiwan will increase by 30 percent from last year, Shao said, adding that the hardware specifications for the second phone have not yet been finalized.
Shao made the remarks at the Taiwan launch of the 5.5-inch G4, which features a 16-megapixel camera module with an F1.8 aperture lens that allows 80 percent more light to hit the image sensor than its predecessor.
LG has also improved the low-light performance of the G4's camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) 2.0 technology, which allows better image stabilization by adding a third axis for the first time.
LG has estimated sales of 250,000 to 300,000 units for the G4 during the next 12 months, an increase of over 30 percent from that of its predecessor, due partly to a shorter replacement cycle among Taiwanese smartphone buyers.
(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM/J
