LONDON—Cellular handset sales in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are showing signs of recovery, prompting LG to enter the UAE’s GSM phone market with two of its mobile-phone models, the LG 600 and the LG 510W. LG hopes the models will help it to gain a 10-percent share of the UAE market in a year’s time.
According to PC Choi, managing director of LG Electronics Gulf, the company chose the UAE for its regional launch because of its 58.5-percent mobile penetration rate, giving the country the Arab world’s largest concentration of mobile-phone users.
Both phone models have the capability to send messages of up to 1,024 characters via short message service (SMS). The LG 600 includes standard features, such the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) functionality, data and fax capabilities, voice dialling, PC Sync, a phone book that can store up to 500 numbers, and up to 31 ring tones. The LG 510W has voice recording, a calculator, a scheduler, speed dialling and 20 ring tones, in addition to the features of the LG 600.
LG plans to enter the Iranian market next moth with other Gulf markets set to follow.
