Made slightly less impressive by earlier news this morning regarding Nokia’s reported claim of having shipped 13 million 5800 XMs 5310 XMs, LG has some news of its own today: 20 million QWERTY handsets sold worldwide. Considering the wide range of QWERTY handsets the company has produced over the years, the number 20 million might not seem overly staggering. What we find most impressive however, is LGs rate of growth when it comes to QWERTY sales. Have a look:
- 2005: 350,000 units sold
- 2006: 600,000 units sold
- 2007: 2.7 million units sold
- 2008: 12.7 million units sold
In other words, in the midst of the most severe economic downturn in decades, LG surged from nearly 3 million QWERTY handsets sold in 2007 to nearly 13 million handsets sold in 2008. Wow. There’s no question that a battle is taking place as far as handset trends are concerned. Design-wise, QWERTY and full touchscreen handsets are probably the two most desirable form factors right now; surprising perhaps, considering these two builds are on opposite ends of the spectrum. LG’s success with QWERTYs is good news for all you button lovers out there however… Despite the increasing numbers of new full touchscreen designs, don’t expect manufacturers to do away with buttons any time soon.
