LG smartphones take up 20% of US market in Q1

LG Electronics recorded the highest market share by selling 7.3 million units of smartphones at the U.S. market over the first quarter of this year.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) on Sunday, LGE enjoyed a 20 percent of U.S. market share in the first quarter, up by 2.9 percentage points year-on-year. LG came third after the first Apple (34.5 percent) and Samsung Electronics (24.6 percent). Chinese firms ZTE (6.9 percent) and TCL-Alcatel (4.5 percent) took the fourth and fifth positions, but were still far behind to catch up with LG.

SA announced that LGE sold a total of 76 million units, and enjoyed their highest market share at 19.6 percent, even when limiting to North American markets including the U.S. and Canada. To global smartphone manufacturers, North America is the largest market for premium smartphones. Some even say LG solidified its third place in this market.

The recent performance of LG comes all the more meaningful, as the result was achieved before officially launching its premium smartphone G6 early this year. "The surprising performance was backed not only by the V20 released last year, but also by steady-selling mid-to-low priced models including X and K series," an LG employee said. LG hopes to further expand their market share and sales over the second quarter when sales of G6 is reflected in its financial statements.

Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com