LG Electronics, a major South Korea-based consumer electronics company, believes the mobile phone will become much more than a voice-communication device. Not only can people make a conventional voice call from the phone, they can also use it as a game console for entertainment.

To make the mobile-game experience something completely new, the company has developed the world's first three-dimensional game phone, to demonstrate the integration of advanced technology in a mobile handset to allow users to play games using body movements.

The new phone - on show at the LG Digital Park showcase centre in Seoul - is equipped with sensors to capture the user's movements. While playing a game, the user can control the action to turn left or right, backwards or forwards, by moving the phone in each direction as required.

To make the game-playing experience much more fun, the phone is designed to link with a large LCD screen through a cable. Instead of playing on a tiny screen, the company said users could enjoy a real-life game on a much bigger screen.

LG Electronics hopes the technology will turn mobile phones into a new kind of entertainment gadget.

Meanwhile, the company is also showing off the latest mobile television phone handset which supports the Digital Video Broadcast: Handheld (DVB-H) standard. The standard is designed for the global delivery of digital television and data services on mobile handsets.

DVB-H will allow the receiving device to move freely while receiving a transmission, thus making it ideal for mobile phones or handheld computers to receive digital broadcasting over digital television networks without the use of mobile-phone networks.

The company has launched its mobile-TV phone in the Korean market and plans it for Thailand by the end of the year.

LG Electronics started its handset operation in 1996. Last year, the company achieved handset sales of 55 million units worldwide. According to a report by Strategy Analytics, a global market research agency, the company was ranked fourth in global mobile-handset sales. The company expects that it will increase overall handset sales by 27 per cent to 70 million units this year.

The company hopes to increase its Thai market share from 2.6 per cent to 5 to 10 per cent by next year. It also plans to join the top five in the Thai mobile-phone market in 2007 and then the top three by 2008 with more than a 10-per-cent market share.

Bo-Hwan Choi, vice president of Asia, Middle East and Africa business at LG Mobile Communication Company, said the total Thai mobile-handset market was expected to reach eight million units this year.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation

SEOUL