LG Smartphone Offensive Faces Roadblocks
LG Electronics Inc. is attempting to win back consumers with new smartphones, as it makes a big splash at this week’s Mobile World Congress telecom show, but its efforts to reinvigorate its ailing mobile business are facing some roadblocks.
The South Korean consumer electronics company, which up until 2009 was the world’s third-largest mobile handset maker by shipments behind Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., doesn’t have a clear strategy when it comes to smartphones, analysts say. Locally well known as a maker of feature phones, it has struggled over the last two years after failing to get an operating system ready for its smartphones when sales of the devices began taking off. It debated whether to use Google Inc.’s Android or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, which some analysts say led to the delay in the launch of its devices.
