DESPITE RECESSION, LG MAKES STRONG SHOWING AT CTIA 2009

LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. stood out in the crowd at this year’s international CTIA WIRELESS 2009 in Las Vegas, NV, which is the largest wireless industry tradeshow in the world.  More than 1,000 exhibitors presented their most innovative wireless products and services on the show floor, vying for the attention of more than 30,000 attendees from more than 125 countries.

The LG Mobile Booth was the star of the show because of its striking visual design and for its stylish, feature-rich products.  The ultra-modern and elegant set-up featured the brand new LG Xenon and LG Neon, two brightly colored handsets that offer fashion-conscious consumers a new and innovative way to better manage their social circle of contacts. LG also introduced a textured, lipstick red version of its popular square-shaped LG Lotus phone and two new Bluetooth headsets, the HBM-900 and HBM-210.

The big trend for LG which emerged in the mobile division this year was messaging phones.  The LG Booth showcased more than a dozen phones with full QWERTY keypads.  “If there was one theme at CTIA 2009, it was the messaging phone,” CNET noted in its coverage of CTIA.  “LG also got into the messaging-phone craze with the LG Neon and Xenon for AT&T.  [CNET’s] Nicole Lee gave both the Xenon and Neon a thorough hands-on and she checked out the LG Prada 2, the LG Banter, and a ‘Transformers’ LG Versa.” 

The hottest mobile devices featured either a full QWERTY keypad, a touch screen or both.  An article by AP reports, “This shift in how people use their mobile devices has overturned cell phone design. 31 percent of phones sold in U.S. stores in the fourth quarter of 2008 had full-alphabet keyboards, up from 5 percent two years earlier.” 

Offerings from other manufacturers included the Samsung Impression, which will be available through AT&T and is the first phone available in the U.S. with a screen that uses AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes).  Nokia announced its E71x handset—also carried by AT&T—which is being billed as the thinnest smart phone in the country, less than half an inch thick.  Sprint Nextel Corp. trotted out the Samsung Instinct s30, a follow-up to the first Instinct, which it introduced last year as a touch-screen competitor to the iPhone. While Blackberry and Palm did not showcase any new phones at the show, Blackberry announced its Blackberry App World. 

LG Mobile also announced an exclusive mobile phone marketing partnership with the highly anticipated upcoming summer film “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” produced by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures.  Paramount will release the film on June 24, 2009.  In anticipation of the release, LG Mobile Phones will launch a multi-faceted marketing campaign to promote the LG Mobile Phones brand and the overall theme of technology in the film.

Despite all the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas, the current state of the economy did show its effects on the size and décor of some booths present.  A reporter from IntoMobile noted, “The Las Vegas convention center show floor is peppered with more small- to medium-sized booths than the big, marketing budget-blowing extravaganza that we’ve seen in shows past. Unfortunately, that’s a sentiment that we’re all too familiar with given the dour economic conditions affecting the globe.” 

Just another reason why the LG booth stood out above the crowd.  The same reporter went on to say, “Which is why it’s always fun stopping by LG’s booth.  LG, as usual, boasted a sprawling booth with lights, DJs and chic decor. The dearth of similarly decked-out booths may be skewing our view, but it sure looks like LG came to CTIA Wireless 2009 to play.  LG is showcasing their LG Arena, LG Rumor 2 and LG Xenon here at CTIA 2009.”

LG was awarded with “Best Booth at 2009 CTIA” honors by a number of digital publications, including the popular SlashGear.com.

Overall, the world’s largest wireless trade show was a huge success for LG Mobile Phones. LG products were featured in more than 400 positive media articles, and secured more than 60 one-on-one booth briefings over a three day span.  

WirelessWeek wrote an article summarizing the show, “I went to Las Vegas expecting a dearth of new products and muted enthusiasm and came away pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t all doom and gloom – far from it. As a reflection of the times, the usual CTIA show hoopla and glitter was a bit muted, but technical innovation is clearly alive and well in the industry.”