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Jan. 11, 2008

In a move designed to help increase its market share in North America, Nokia said that it hopes to launch more than a dozen new handsets in 2008.

This compares to only three new handsets Nokia introduced last year.

Although the Japanese phone maker is the largest handset manufacturer in the world by a considerable margin, it only ranked number four in the U.S., according to research firm Strategy Analytics' Q3 report.

In an interview this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Mark Louison, president of Nokia North America said that "it's not unreasonable to expect to see the company launch between six and 12 new carrier-specific handsets this year."

In the past, the phone maker said that it expected to see its North American business pick up starting this year.

Overall, Nokia's mobile phones primarily are carried in the United States by GSM operators AT&T and T-Mobile.

However, Nokia also said that this year it plans to customize its phones for Verizon Wireless, a CDMA-based carrier.

As the wireless market intensifies and continues to pick up momentum, LG Electronics also has made announcements this week at the CES show about plans for the North American market.

The Korean phone maker said it plans to sell about $13 billion worth of products in North America for 2008. Michael Ahn, president and CEO of LG Electronics has said that the company plans to achieve this by introducing more high-end products.

Last year, LG's sales in North American were US $11.5 billion.

LG added that it hopes to become one of the top three manufacturers of flat panel TVs in North America and that it wants second place in the U.S. mobile phone market.

For the North American market and in the third quarter of 2007, LG ranked third, not too far behind second-place Samsung.

For 2008, LG Electronics said it plans to introduce more music and multimedia capable handsets, and that more of its wireless phones will feature 3G networking technologies.

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Source: Wireless Week

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