LG Electronics expected to raise smartphone sales target for 2013

LG Electronics is going to readjust its smartphone sales target for this year to a level higher than an estimate of 35 million handsets, up 33.1 percent from last year, due to the better-than-expected performance in January, industry sources said on Jan. 31.

Although experts forecast that the global smartphone market will grow around 20 percent this year, the company set a more aggressive sales target of 35 million units.

Jung Do-hyeon, chief financial officer (CFO) and vice president of LG Electronics, said during the LG Group's Q4 business performance release event a day earlier that he was confidant that "(we) will achieve a performance beyond market expectation.”

The company's smartphone sales showed a steady growth last year - 4.9 million handsets in first quarter, 5.8 million in the second quarter, 7 million in the third quarter and 8.6 million in the fourth quarter.

By Josephine Liu Yan Yee

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com