By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
LG Electronics has decided not to participate in the ``Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010'' to be held in Barcelona, Spain in February.
``Due to higher costs of hiring a pavilion and chronic worries over copyright-related issues, LG has decided to skip the 2010 event,'' a spokesman for the world's third-biggest handset vendor said.
``Chinese handset manufacturers have copied LG products, which have been exhibited at the show, in just a few months, costing us heavily,'' the official said, adding top company executives have reached a broad consensus over minimal effects in returns for participation in the show.
LG's mobile business is currently led by Ahn Seung-kwon. Ahn, who has significantly helped LG's Chocolate-branded devices become a global hit, will continue in the top job for a second-term after a recent management reshuffle.
MWC is the world's biggest telecommunication show. The annual event is the venue for handset vendors and parts suppliers to show off their designs and technology-featured digital devices.
LG's latest decision would be another painful punch for the show organizer. Industry leader Nokia and the world's No. 5 vendor Sony-Ericsson earlier scrapped their plans to attend the show.
``Our stance hasn't changed. Nokia will skip next year's MWC. Nothing has been decided yet over our plans to launch new handsets,'' an official at Nokia Korea said.
In contrast, runner-up to Nokia, Samsung Electronics plans to go to the show installing its biggest-ever exhibition booth.
``Samsung will attend the event as planned. Samsung's booth will be the biggest. Inside we will unveil wholly new telecommunication-related products,'' a Samsung Electronics spokesman said.
Although only two out of five big handset manufacturers are to appear at the upcoming event, it is expected to gain momentum as vendors are ready to introduce Google's Android-powered mobile phones, according to company officials.
Meanwhile, advanced versions of the next-generation mobile technology called long-term evolution (LTE) will also be exhibited at the telecom fair.
Samsung Electronics, which plans to increase the portion of phones with Android platforms by 30 percent in 2010, will exhibit camera- and AM OLED-featured phones.
``With a series of new Android mobiles, Samsung is moving to explain its own mobile platform ― Bana ― which means ocean in Korean, to contents developers,'' the official added.
With Samsung, Taiwan's HTC is also set to ride the trend, while search engine giant Google is expected debut its ``Google-phone'' at the exhibition, officials say.
``This year's key word for the fair will be platform. Attention is being focused on how Google explains its plans for open platforms,'' an industry watcher said.
yckim@koreatimes.co.kr
