LG breaks out the champers as it passes 10m LTE phones landmark

Korean mobile giant LG has announced the sale of its 10 millionth 4G LTE smartphone.

As improved 4G networks and next-gen consumer adoption continues to increase rapidly, it appears that LGs position as an early LTE leader, has enabled it to cash in, despite losing market share recently.

The new sales figures double the 5 million it announced in August, a little over six months ago.

LG has now set an ambitious target of hitting 20m LTE phone sales by the end of 2013, with handsets like the Optimus G Pro and the newer Optimus F5 and F7, which will spread 4G to a less exclusive clientele.

Differentiated offerings

In a statement LG CEO Jong-seok Park said: "Aggressive pushing forward with 4G LTE technology allows LG satisfy the needs of consumers and is a huge factor in our growing success in global LTE smartphone sales.

"Having established ourselves as a major industry player, we will continue to expand our footprint in the global LTE market with a wider range of differentiated, high quality LTE smartphones."

However, despite the impressive sales figures, LG continues to lost 4G LTE market share, according to recent figures from Strategy Analytics.

In Q3 2012, it's share of the pie fell from 15 per cent to just 9 per cent globally. Samsung leads the way with 41 per cent, while Apple - a latecomer to the 4G party - already has 26 per cent of the market.