By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
LG Electronics has come up with touch-based multimedia handsets in a bid to take a bigger stake in the promising global touch-screen mobile segment.
LG said Thursday that it will commercialize ``Touch-Web’’ handsets, code-named ``LG-LH2300,’’ in the local market from early April via LG Telecom, the smallest of the nation’s three mobile carriers.
LG officials said the 3-megapixel camera phone is equipped with a wider 3-inch WVGA LCD display, enabling users to browse the Web and e-mail via mobile Internet.
``We hope the touch-screen 3G phone will meet the growing consumer appetite for mobile experiences, such as fast mobile data services,’’ said Cho Sung-ha, an LG executive handling mobile phone business in South Korea.
The phone comes after LG Telecom has opened a new 3G service dubbed ``OZ,’’ which stands for ``open zone,’’ to provide a wide range of Internet services via mobile phones.
LG declined to comment on the sales target of the phone, saying the introduction is in accordance with the company’s yearly focus on touch-based handsets.
LG has been releasing touch-screen phones such as Voyager, Venus, Prada and the expensitve Viewty on the global market to catch up with the world’s No. 4 Sony-Ericsson.
A market researcher Gartner said Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are one of the players leading the way in handset functionality and design, with the market now eagerly awaiting Nokia’s attempt at a touch-screen interface.