Samsung gets smart...

It seems that Samsung has recognized the importance of the smartphone market - Samsung aims to triple smartphone sales in 2010 | Reuters - and now has ambitions to triple its shipments. While a target of 18 million smartphones sounds impressive, that doesn't make it a leader:

• Nokia's shipping about 21 million units a quarter
• Apple's shipping about 9 million

With Nokia's shipments comprising about 40% of the smartphone market, it's on track to be about 220 to 250 million units, depending on how fast it grows; that implies 7-8% market share for Samsung, split across the Android and WinMo platforms.

LG's ambitions

It seems that LG has ambitions to be the #2 (by volume) mobile phone vendor. Their plans seem, however, to be focused on hardware, rather than software:

• in Q4 LG will launch a new “Black label” series phone, which will be positioned to compete with the iPhone


• LG is pretty happy with their luxury “Prada” phone line and is working on another Prada handset


• LG also has a plan to move even deeper into a luxury cellphone market, by creating it’s own extreme premium brand,  “similar to Toyota’s Lexus and Nokia’s Vertu”

The big unanswered question is about software and services. If the 'Black Label' is going to compete effectively, then great aesthetics alone won't be enough; LG will need to deliver on the complete user experience, which means software and services. These have not been its traditional areas of strength.