LG's share in India's mobile market 'shameful', focus on affordable phones: Ki Wan Kim

NEW DELHI: LG's share in India's mobile handset market is "shameful" and the Korean consumer electronics major is correcting strategy to focus on affordable phones. It is also open to resuming local manufacturing to make a mark.

Ki Wan Kim, the newly-appointed managing director of LG Electronics India, said that its performance in the mobile handsets business this year so far has been "disappointing" and the company has a "shameful" share in the India market dominated by its country rival Samsung, local players Micromax and Intex, with Chinese peers such as Xiaomi making huge strides. "We are trying to identify what consumers are looking for. We will take significant market share going ahead," Kim said, adding that the plan is to bring very India-specific devices to take on the competition.

Saying his main target is to bring mobile sales to similar level of consumer durables, Kim said, "In three years' time, my target is to make all our product categories to contribute equally in percentage terms to our total sales. I have to put more energy into the mobile phone business."

Currently, handset sales contribute just 7-8% to overall revenue of the company in India. LG is planning to launch around 5 new handset models this year.