Hero devices help LG join Apple and Samsung at the top of the smartphone food chain

lg quick voice

LG is now the No. 3 smartphone maker, for the first time, as sales of its higher-end handsets lift it above HTC and other brands scrambling for the scraps left by Apple and Android. Although Samsung and Apple combined for 71.4 percent of the market, sales by the South Korean LG rose to 3.2 percent as HTC fell to fourth place on word of disappointing profits, according to research firm Strategy Analytics…

“LG is betting high-end models that boast powerful hardware and software features and ha fast 4G connection will help it rebuild its tarnished handset brand quality and increase its market share of the lower-end segment as well,” Reuters reported Thursday.

LG also is learning how to advertise against Apple, check out this commercial showcasing their panorama feature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh-2_Nt8Wac

Despite rising sales, LG remains No. 7 in terms of unit shipments, its four percent share behind Huawei, Lenovo, Sony and others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvlvPgGUspw

Much of LG’s rising sales are powered by demand for its high-end handsets, such as the 5-inch Optimus Pro, which is the company’s best-selling smartphone that moved 500,000 units in its first forty days of availability, according to the company.

It boasts features LG hopes will help it compete with Samsung’s new Galaxy S4. Among these is a cool motion-detection tech which stops or starts a video when someone is looking at the screen (turns out, there’s an iPhone app for that, too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJ9HKhfSgU

According to Reuters, analysts expect LG to ship sixteen percent more smartphones, or ten million units, when the company announces first-quarter results April 24. That would top the 8.6 million phones sold during the holidays and counter the traditional slowdown following a busy fourth quarter.

LG’s growth is in contrast to HTC, which delayed its main 2013 smartphone, the One. The unexpected move has disappointed analysts and placed the One’s introduction up against the media blitz likely to surround the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S4.

Have  you tried the G Optimus or some of the recent LG phones?

These so-called ‘hero’ LG devices are getting better and better, aren’t they?