LG app-lies itself
LG Electronics has launched an app store with an increased focus on feature phones as well as the already well-served smartphone market.
Targeting users of both types of phone, the catchily-named LG Application Store touts over 3,000 apps, including games like The SIMS 3 and Asphalt 4 as well as popular applications from SPB Series for mid to high-end feature phone and smartphones. LG says Android apps are also on the way.
Interestingly, about half the applications are devoted to feature phones, which LG says have been mostly overlooked by a market intent on providing smartphone apps. Unlike competitor Motorola, LG has set up its own app store instead of adopting an established (and successful) platform like Android.
LG says research from Strategy Analytics shows over 90 percent of feature phone owners in the US and UK are interested in downloading social networking, instant messaging, mapping and voice over internet protocol apps.
The self professed ‘leader' in mid and high end feature phones which have adopted many smartphone features believes it will serve the feature phone app demand with its new store, offering consumers new ways to use their existing feature phone handsets.
As well as apps for Windows OS phones already on sale, the new app store will supply applications for Android-powered smartphones by the end of the year, as it subscribes to forecasts that the Android market is set to surge globally, positioning its store to exploit this opportunity.
Launching across 23 countries, it seems the LG Application Store is primarily targeting emerging markets, but the firm plans on rolling the proposition out to the already crowded market in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain by the end of the year, as well as increasing the number of apps available to over 4,000.
To meets users' unquenchable thirst for phone applications, "we've put a great deal of effort into strengthening our application offerings for all types of phone owners," said Dr. Skott Ahn, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "By studying customer insights and collaborating with top-level companies, LG is working to produce some of the best applications on the market."
