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Cape Town - LG has launched its latest smartphone in SA on Thursday.
The electronics company announced that the G4 will be launched in SA on June 19 across all networks.
"In South Africa, we launched the G3 in August of last year and consumers will have access to the G4 officially from June19, but predominantly mainstream from the month of July," Deon Prinsloo, general manager of LG Mobile South Africa told Fin24.
The LG G4 attracted much attention in its international launch for the leather cover premium feel of the smartphone and Prinsloo said that it was a fit for the company's SA strategy.
"If you look at the price category $500 and upward, 70% of market revenue actually sits in that price category. So there is a major demand from consumers for high end devices, feature rich devices in that post paid tariff plan of R299 and upward."
LG strategy
Industry research by the IDC indicates that people in particularly developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa are opting to buy smartphones in the $100 - $200 price bracket.
Prinsloo conceded that prepaid consumers were price sensitive, but argued that the LG strategy was, for the moment, focused on mobile contract customers.
"Yes, when we look at the prepaid consumer, definitely, consumers are calling for R1 000, sub R2 000 devices. Our strategy has been to first establish ourselves within the post paid market: This is in line with our consumer brand which is really entrenched in terms of high end devices, latest technology in the market; premium devices.
"For 2015 still, you'll see us aggressively focus on the post paid market and the telco specialist market."
The latest LG smartphone is intended to take direct aim at fellow South Korean brand Samsung and both latest devices have improved cameras, but the LG devices has a completely manual mode, similar to Nokia (now Microsoft) top-end Lumia devices.
Prinsloo held no punches in stating his intention to take the fight for mobile phone dominance to rivals.
"Especially in the post paid market, consumers are starting to shop around; we see consumers are spending a lot more time researching products and brands before they actually make the purchase.
"For me, we are our own competition and we need to position the best possible product for our SA consumers."
Price
While price for premium smartphones has been trending upward, consumers also demand that the gadgets have more features for an increasingly mobile tech environment.
"When you have to pay R399, R499 or upward for a product, you want the latest technology in the market, and consumers today are really aware of the camera quality they want on their device, screen quality and overall look and feel," Prinsloo said.
He argued that LG was best placed to offer value with its latest smartphone.
"What I'm proud to say is, in terms of tariff plan and price plan, LG brings the best offer to the market and to local consumers."
Watch this online video of the LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S6 camera being compared:
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