LG 2003 Annual Report Download - page 27

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|||||||Telecommunication Equipment & Handset Company |||||||
LG Electronics Inc._Annual Report 2003 27
Dear shareholder and customers,
In the difficult international and domestic market environments of last year, LGE rose to the new challenges
of the worldwide handset market and secured a position as one of the Top 5 handset makers in the world.
Despite the extreme slump in the worldwide telecommunication market, we led the international camera
handset market to become the No.1 CDMA handset maker in the world. In particular, we became the number
one supplier to Verizon Wireless, North America’s largest wireless carrier. Moreover, we have successfully
penetrated the global GSM market, supplying more than one million units in 2003 to major GSM carriers such
as Vodafone, Orange, and Cingular. In just two short years since launching our GSM handset business, we
have laid a strong foundation for becoming a global player in the GSM market.
We have taken major strides in increasing our brand name through our innovative products and aggressive
brand marketing in the US and Europe as evidenced by the growth of our global mobile handsets. Moreover,
US customers rated LGE number one in customer satisfaction, and we have been dubbed a “Rising Star” by
the media.
For our mobile handset business in 2003, we sold a total of 27 million handsets, registering 5.2 trillion won
in sales, which is more than 47% growth over the previous year. On the back of such growth, we raised our
global market share sharply to 5.3% and we are now ranked in the Global Top 5. We have now established a
solid footing for LG Electronics to become a Global Top 3 company by 2007.
Despite the downturn in investment of wired and wireless communication
carriers and several years of stagnation in the communications
infrastructure industry, we were able to successfully turn around our
telecommunication systems business as it became profitable
through business rationalization. Of significant note, LGE is
poised to become a leader in 3G mobile communication
systems, displaying considerable technological prowess with
the successful commercialization of W-CDMA system
equipment. On the back of our internally developed technology,
we have laid the foundation for future growth in the next
generation network market.
Along with the recovery of the global economy, the worldwide mobile
handset market in 2004 is expected to post robust growth figures. The forecasts
for the Korean market also call for a 10% increase over the previous year, boosted by
number portability and a surge in VOD/Camera handset demand.
Along with the increase in demand, telecom operators are expected to focus on offering data and
value-added services. Such developments will allow us to recover from last year’s stagnation by
releasing market leading products and expand our market share in the premium segment.
The initiatives to solidify our No.1 market share position in the CDMA market and to double our
Rising Star in the Global Market
G7100 (GSM handset for the EU)
We have incorporated a
highly-differentiated design to our MMS
folder-type handset. The G7100 has
a swivel that can rotate the screen
270 degrees in order to take
full advantage of its 300k
pixel camera and its
65K TFT LCD main
display and
OLED
subdisplay.