LG Electronics lowered its full-year smartphone sales target by 20 percent. The company expects to sell 24 million smartphones this year, Park Jong Seok, head of the mobile business, said at a media briefing in Seoul reported by Bloomberg. That's down from a previous target of 30 million. LG's mobile division had an operating loss of KRW 100.5 billion in the first three months of the year. While the business is "slowly" improving, it's unclear when it will turn around, Park said. "It's hard to give an exact timing, because there are so many market variables, and the situation changes quickly," he said. The company said in February it aims to quadruple smartphone sales this year by introducing twenty models. Including other types of handsets, the company will probably sell about 114 million units this year, lower than the February goal to sell 150 million phones, Park said. The company is counting on its Optimus Android phone to revive earnings. LG expects the 3D handset to sell 1.7 million units by the end of the year, Park said. The company is also working on a new model equipped with a HD 4.5-inch screen, he added. The Optimus 3D is launching this week in South Korea, exclusively with operator SK at a retail price of KRW 800,000, local agency Yonhap reported. LG is holding off selling in its home market its Android tablet introduced earlier this year because of a "big change" in the tablet market caused by the iPad, Park said. LG will still release the tablet in some overseas markets "defined as meaningful", he said.
