By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

LG Electronics, the world's second-largest maker of flat-screen televisions, enjoyed a dramatic improvement in profit during the July-September period due to record shipments of televisions and other consumer electronics products, company officials said.

The company, which is also the No. 3 handset vendor behind Nokia and domestic rival Samsung Electronics, said its operating profit rose 49 percent from a year earlier to 850.2 billion won (about $721 million) in the third quarter.

Its net profit of 807.2 billion won was more than 30 times higher than the 24.9 billion won the company reported in the same period last year.

Global sales, combining the performance of LG Electronics' domestic and overseas operations, rose 15.7 percent from a year earlier at 13.9 trillion won.

LG Electronics said its profitable third quarter was driven by strength in its two major markets: consumer electronics and mobile phones.

The company's home-entertainment division, which relies on liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions, saw its operating profit jump more than seven-fold to 254.8 billion won, while sales rose by nearly 24 percent to 4.92 trillion won.

The company sold a record 4.01 million LCD TVs during the third quarter, and expects to sell 25 million next year, with growth driven by new products such as light-emitting diode (LED) backlit LCD TVs.

LG Electronics' mobile-phone sales also reached a quarterly mark of 30 million units for the first time. The company said it sold 31.6 million handsets in the third quarter, representing a 6 percent increase quarter-to-quarter and a 37 percent jump year-on-year.

The company's handset division saw sales rise by nearly 25 percent year-on-year at 4.38 trillion won, while operating profit was reported at 384.4 billion won.

Although LG Electronics saw a slight decrease in the handset shipments in the United States, it was more than offset by growth in Europe and developing nations, company officials said.

The company's ``Cookie'' touch-screen phone has become a worldwide hit, with 1 million sold every month, and the LG KS360 handset, equipped with a variety of social networking features, has also received positive reviews.

The company has recently launched the second version of its ``Chocolate'' touch screen phone and is expecting to release three smart phone models, equipped with the Windows Mobile operating system, and another handset powered by the Google-backed Android operating system during the fourth quarter.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr