LG Themes

Android based tablet computer

LG said it plans to launch an Android-based tablet computer at the end of this year, a move the company hopes help it gain ground in mobile devices and compete against market leader Apple.

The South Korean company said the device, part of its Optimus family of products, will run on Google’s latest operating system, Android 2.2. No further details were provided including pricing or availability.

“Optimus is just the first of many devices that we’ll be offering,” said Skott Ahn, LG Mobile’s chief executive. “We believe in providing the public with many different choices because unlike the users of some of our competitors’ phones, our customers are not all alike.”

LG, the world’s third largest handset maker, joins Hewlett-Packard, Dell, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Samsung and even Google and Verizon, all planning to introduce their own tablet devices in the coming months.

LG UX10 Tablet

Just a month ago at Computex, LG unveiled a prototype of the UX10 tablet, a 10.1-inch touch screen device, which runs Windows 7 Home software and features a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, an Atom Z530 chip and 120-gigabyte of storage.

The company also said it will also launch smartphones running Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Mobile 7 software later this year.

LG is not doing very good at this moment. CEO Nam Yong hopes to turn things around with his plan to flood the smartphone market. LG is planning to release 20 android phones by the end of 2010.

Android & Windows Mobile

LG has been loyal to the windows phone operating system and plans to ship a number of new phones with windows phone 7 version when it launches later this year. However, its focus is clearly on Android devices now. CEO Nam Yong said that LG wanted to have half of its models running the Google operating system Android. This push of 20 models will certainly go a long way towards achieving that goal.

Mobile Market

The mobile market is where LG is performing best and focus on this should increase its revenue significantly. LG said it needs more time to turn around its ‘weak’ financial position and expects poor results for the second quarter of this year while it changes its focus.

20 models is quite a lot to release before the end of the year and may lead to a situation where LG is competing with itself by spreading itself too thinly. Clearly LG sees the recent growth in Android’s market share as a potential money maker.