Competition Heats up in LTE-A Smartphone Market

SEOUL, KOREA- Competition among Korea’s three major smartphone makers—Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Pantech, is flaring up in the LTE-A smartphone market. LTE-A is a new telecommunications network that’s two times faster than LTE and ten times faster than 3G.
Following Samsung’s release of LTE-A phone Galaxy S4 LTE-A, first in the world, LG and Pantech joined the market early this month. Against this backdrop, attention is growing over whether the LTE-A phone market, which remained sluggish, will grow at a faster pace in the future.

Samsung Electronics is enjoying the first-mover advantage with the daily sales of its Galaxy S4 LTE-A reaching 9,000-10,000 units. The most striking feature of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A is the improvement in the quality of DMB. The DMB resolution of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A is VGA-class (640 x 480), about four times higher than those of the regular DMB.

LG Electronics’ LG G2 is primed with its rear key. With a power button and volume button located on the back side, LG G2 looks sleeker than its rivals.

Pantech’s Vega LTE-A has a 5.6-inch screen, larger than any other, while being mounted with a secret key that supports both fingerprint and rear touch features.