LG beats rival to become No. 2 in LTE sales in fourth quarter

LG Electronics leapfrogged its Taiwanese rival HTC to become the world’s second-largest maker of smartphones running on the high-speed long-term evolution (LTE) network in the fourth quarter of 2011, an industry report showed yesterday.

The company sold around 800,000 LTE phones globally in the quarter to grab a 20 percent market share, according to a report by Strategy Analytics.

HTC sold about 700,000 units for a global share of 17 percent, the report showed.

As expected, Samsung Electronics ranked first in global sales of LTE phones by selling some 1.7 million units in the cited period.

LG has been betting on the fourth-generation LTE market in a bid to turnaround its underperforming handset business. Its once money-losing mobile communications division swung into profit for the first time in seven quarters at the end of last year.

Samsung sold around 2.6 million LTE handsets last year to emerge as the market No. 1, followed by HTC with 2 million units and LG Electronics with 1.1 million, it added.