SINGAPORE--Can the company position itself to be taken seriously as a premium mobile brand in the Asian market?

	LG's Bo-Hwan Choi and his Chocolate factory

For Korean chaebol LG, one suspects that life is very much like a box of Chocolates. That message comes across loud and clear when visitors to this year's CommunicAsia2006 step into what the company has demarcated its Chocolate Zone. If that isn't sufficiently crystal, an overhead signboard brandishing the theme "Ready for New Chocolate?" should cue in even the clueless.

In a press statement, Mun-Hwa Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Co, expressed the company's intentions that "the Chocolate phone is part of our strategy to build LG into customers' top choice among premium mobile brands".

Indeed, riding on the sweet success of its bestselling Black Label fashion series, LG has had, as Bo-Hwan Choi acknowledged at today's press briefing, a "quickstart" to becoming the world's number four handset manufacturer (Q1, 2006). Choi is the Mobile Communications vice president in charge of Sales and Marketing in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

	Ready for more Chocolate?

The Chocolate phone has enabled LG to up the ante in the competitive cellular arena and give market stalwarts like Samsung and Motorola a run for their money. In terms of annual growth, the Korean firm has achieved a reported rate of 53 percent from 2001-2005. It has aggressively targeted Asia as an increasingly important market, and toward this end will buck the trend by launching its handsets in the region either simultaneously with or ahead of Europe.

While Jewel in the Palace soap darling and LG spokesmodel Lee Young-Ae might not have graced CommunicAsia2006 with her presence, trade visitors have plenty else to preview, from the company's second Black Label offering to the upcoming 5-megapixel KG920, to Mobile TV handsets such as the V9000.

Like its elder sibling the Chocolate KG800, the KG810 is sugar-coated in the iconic black-and-red hues so reminiscent of chocolate brand Sin. Its pioneering heat-sensitive touch keys light up in a red glow when activated. Black, however, isn't the defining color of the Black Label marque. LG will also be importing its White and Gold Chocolates into Asia in the next few months.

As for Mobile TV, Choi added that LG is "ready with the product" as long as the region's operators are "ready for the system".

Model name	In a nutshell
LG Chocolate Black Label II (gold) Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: After the black and the white comes the gold edition, for those who like the glitter of 14-carat gold. Other notable frills: Triband with GPRS 1.3-megapixel cameras 2-inch QVGA LCD display Bluetooth MP3 player 512MB onboard memory 95 x 48 x 15.2mm, 83g Expected: October 2006 in Asia Pricing: N.A.
LG White Chocolate Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: A white edition of LG's popular black Chocolate KG800 slider. Other notable frills: Triband with GPRS 1.3-megapixel cameras 2-inch QVGA LCD display Bluetooth MP3 player 512MB onboard memory 95 x 48 x 15.2mm, 83g Expected: August 2006 in Asia Pricing: N.A.
LG KG810 Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: A clamshell version of the Chocolate phone, the external touch-sensitive keypad offers dedicated music buttons. Other notable frills: Triband with GPRS 1.3-megapixel camera with flash, 4x digital zoom 176 x 220-pixel, 262K-color TFT screen 96 x 96-pixel, 65K-color TFT sub-display Speakerphone FM radio Supports MP3, ACC, AAC+ and WMA formats Voice memo recording Bluetooth 1.2 128MB memory 92 x 47 x 14.6mm, 82g Expected: July 2006 in Singapore, by year-end within Asia Pricing: N.A.
LG KG920 Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: Claims to be world's slimmest autofocus 5-megapixel camera-phone, complete with strobe flash, half-shutter focus and lens cover. The GSM handset will also be the first 5-megapixel shutter phone to roll out in Singapore. Other notable frills: 2-inch QVGA 180-degree twist design screen QVGA-quality video at 30fps Bluetooth 8MB memory with miniSD slot Video on Demand MP3 player M-commerce support Expected: July 2006 in Singapore, by year-end within Asia Pricing: N.A.
LG KG320 Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: Ultra-svelte girth at just 9.9mm thin, second only to the Samsung SGH-X820 which claims to be the world's thinnest at 6.9mm. Other notable frills: Triband with GPRS 1.3-megapixel camera 176 x 220-pixel, 262K-color TFT screen Voice recorder MP3 player with six preset equalizers Bluetooth 128MB memory 73.6g Expected: July 2006 in Asia, August in Europe Pricing: N.A.
LG U8500 Click for specs and larger image	Wow factor: Successor to LG's popular U880, the U8500 is one of the better choices for a slim 3G phone out there. Other notable frills: Triband with 3G Rotating 1.3-megapixel camera 176 x 220-pixel, 262K TFT screen 96 x 96-pixel, 65K TFT sub-display MP3 player with memory good for 20 MP3 songs, dedicated music buttons Bluetooth Video telephony Expected: September 2006 in Singapore, by year-end within Asia Pricing: N.A.
LG V9000 Click for larger image	Wow factor: Claims to be world's first WCDMA TDMB Mobile TV phone, good for up to 3 hours of viewing and 1-hour-long program recording. Other notable frills: GSM/GPRS/WCDMA Quadband, TDMB band 3 and L-band 90-degree Swing Wide LCD 1.3-megapixel AF CMOS camera LG's own chip of DAB/DMB receiving and AV decoding 3D surround sound system TV capture Bluetooth MP3 player External memory (TransFlash) Data interactivity support Expected: From July 2006, dependent on local service providers being DMB or DVB-H, FLo ready Pricing: N.A.

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