LG releases Q1 results for 2011: Selling more, making less

LG have published their quarterly results for the first part of 2011 and although they have beaten their own volume of sales from the same time last year, they've made less of a profit and continue to struggle coming off the back end of 2010. LG quote unit sales at around US $12.6 billion.

The drop is primarily due to cost cutting and cheaper unit prices, LG have published their biggest losses within the Home Entertainment sector (with sales dropping by 4.8% since Q1 2010). Mobile Communications and more specifically Handsets have been under achieving too, with an 8.3% drop in MoComs and a 9.2% drop on handsets in particular compared to Q1 of 2010.

With regards to their Mobile Communications sector, LG have shipped 24.5M units (10% less than that Q1 of 2010) but have made stronger sales on their premium devices such as the LG Optimus 2X, their intended focus in Q4's report last year. To make back some ground they intend to further this by pushing some new models for Q2; namely the Optimus Black, the Big (aka the LG LU6800), the 3D and the LTE Revolution. We've already seen the Big pop up in LG's homeland and there are no plans to release it elsewhere.

In the last quarter alone it seems that Europe accounts for the biggest shift having fallen out of favour with LG handsets causing the company a 4% drop in shipping to that specific market. They have made ground back in places like Africa and North America, but not enough to allow them to 'breathe easy'.

The full state of affairs is available via LG here (PDF) and with their leading competitors already unleashing their newest flagship handsets (à la the Galaxy S II), LG are very much aware they will have to try hard to make up for lost ground.

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