LG to bring down touchscreen phone price to Rs 5,000

The move reflects a trend change in the sales strategy of the handset maker, which now plans to take such phones to the masses to drive revenues. Touchscreen phones currently cost above Rs 8,000-9,000, with Samsung being the price leader in the segment.
"We would like 20 per cent of sales volume from touchscreen phones in 2010... as per the emerging trend more and more people would turn to touchscreen and LG would launch these phones at Rs 5,000 price point," Sudhin Mathur said in an interview.

Mathur said LG India is aiming to sell 10 million units of mobile phones in 2010. It already has a mass touchscreen phone 'Cookie' in the price range of Rs 8,000. Chocolate is another one in the segment, which is costlier at Rs 20,000.

The segment is the fastest growing in India, currently dominated by Samsung, which constituted around 15 per cent of the total number of mobile phones sold in the country last year. Touchscreens are widely expected to double LG's share to around 30 per cent this year.

The company has also announced its strategy to treble sales in the country to Rs 3,000 crore and double its marketshare to 10 per cent this year.

The Korean company is planning to launch 40 handsets starting from entry level, comprising of 10 smartphones—- six based on Android platform and four on Windows system.
To drive sales, LG Mobiles has appointed bollywood stars -- John Abraham, Genelia D Souza and Abhay Deol as brand ambassadors.