LG announced today that since the Optimus G smartphone hit the market, it has reached the coveted milestone of selling one million handsets. I use the word “coveted” because unless your company is selling a Galaxy line of Android smartphones or the iPhone, you wait quite a while to get there, if ever. The Optimus G launched in the second half of 2012 and is currently available in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Korea.
The company’s looking to expand Optimus G availability into select European markets as well as China before the end of the first quarter. The expansion should help boost sales even further. One million units sold — not shipped, by the way — when it’s available in only four countries is arguably impressive especially when you compare stats to the rest of the failing Android manufacturers.
LG is slowly rising in terms of smartphone sales. Q3 2012 was its best quarter yet and if Q4’s earnings top the previous quarter when they come out, it’s possible LG could make a turnaround that would spice up the Samsung Android market and make it a bit more interesting. Since pretty much no company is making any substantial profit from Android devices other than Samsung, if LG could rise up and claim a larger piece of the pie, not only would it help driver innovation, but also LG would make a pretty good name for itself.
We’ll have to see how Q4 turned out. There’s also speculation of the Optimus G2 as slated for release later in 2013.