After a one-month delay, Google’s flagship handset, the LG Nexus 4 will finally make its way to Indonesia next week. Indonesian e-commerce store Multiply will become one of the first online stores open for pre-orders, while offering a generous IDR 1 million ($104) discount in the process.

Pre-orders will be for the 16GB version and can be made from tomorrow until January 10th. The handset’s normal price is IDR 5.5 million ($570), and the aforementioned discount is only for pre-orders.

Customers then can opt to pick up the phones at the Grand Indonesia Shopping Town on January 12th, or they can be delivered on January 11th. Multiply will give out a free tumbler and a power bank for customers who pick up the phones themselves while stocks last. There are only 200 phones available for the pre-orders.

The Nexus 4 runs on the latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS. TheVerge touts it as being almost the best Android phone on the market, except for the fact that it doesn’t support LTE, a feature not relevant to Indonesian users anyway.

You can check out more information on the Multiply site, and use the discount code ID-PROMOLGNEXUS4 to get the price down to IDR 4.5 million ($467) when making your purchase.

It is confirmed: The LG-made Nexus 4, Google’s new flagship Android phone, will be available for sale this December in Indonesia. This was announced by Denny Muliawardana, the sales head of LG Mobile Indonesia yesterday via Okezone.

LG reminds Indonesian consumers that the Nexus 4 will not use the widely-rumored Key Lime Pie, instead it runs Jelly Bean 4.2 – that’s still a good update, but with no new name. There is no news regarding the Samsung-made Nexus 10 tablet, but since it took around four months for the Asus-produced Nexus 7 to land in Indonesia (compared to the international release), we might need to wait a bit more for the Nexus 10’s arrival.

[Source: Okezone]

Korean manufacturer LG Electronics (066570:KS) announced today that it has surpassed the milestone of 5 million LTE smartphones sold last month, with more than 1 million smartphones sold in July alone. LG Mobile’s CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park noted that this pace is going to sharply increase in the near future:

Sales of global LTE smartphones are expected to increase ten-fold this year from last year […] With that in mind, we are planning to introduce an even more impressive LTE line-up in the next several months second to none.

The company currently offers ten LTE smartphones across regions where LTE is available, including South Korea and Japan where LTE adoption is progressing quickly. As for LTE adoption in the rest of the world, you can see a map of countries where LTE is commercially available below [1]. It will be interesting to see the mobile innovations that come out of markets which have a head start on LTE adoption.

According to figures just released by Gartner, LG’s current share of the worldwide mobile market is 3.4 percent, which is down from 5.7 percent on the previous year [2].

Source: Wikipedia

Engadget points out today that Korean electronics maker LG (066570:KS) has implemented a Siri-style voice command function which will be soon coming to its Optimus Android smartphone lineup.

It’s called Quick Voice, and it can be used to perform such actions like search, calling, web browsing, or making appointments. As Engadget notes, LG’s domestic rival Samsung has a competing service in its ‘S Voice’ function which is said to support Korean, English, and a number of other languages.

Apple recently announced Korean support for Siri at its recent WWDC keynote, in addition to Siri for Chinese. But its good to see Android phone makers putting forth an effort to keep up with an attractive iPhone feature.

In Japan, Docomo was among the first companies to roll out a smartphone voice assistant after Apple first unveiled Siri back in October of 2011. Its Shabette Concier service accepts Japanese voice input and does output too. It receives an upgrade this month having been first announced to the public a few months back.

Meanwhile across the water in China, Baidu’s recently announced Changhong H5018 will also boast Chinese voice recognition technology, although we’re not sure yet how useful it will be beyond search functionality.

[Via: Engadget, by way of Jon Russell over on The Next Web]

ARTX 2012 is the “first augmented reality event” in Asia – so claims the organizer Augmented Reality & Co (AR & Co). The event was held on June 15 and 16, and featured exhibitions, seminars, and an augmented reality competition. The promos for it sounded fun, so I dropped in. It saw 1,500 in attendance, and was held at Bina Nusantara university in partnership with Kibar Kreasi and Kompas.

The exhibition itself showcased some of the best usage of augmented reality technology by brands in Indonesia. We had Indosat, Djarum, Telkom, Disney, Qualcomm, LG, Kino Toys, Dancow, Lee Cooper, Kompas, and Nissan. In total there were 16 exhibitors. Managing director of AR & Co, Peter Shearer, explained more:

As a digital industry player, we want to help educate the people about the development of augmented reality technology in Indonesia and its usage in more than just one sector. AR&Co, as a pioneer of augmented reality development in Indonesia, is proud to be able to showcase and hold this event. This shows that Indonesia’s products can compete with anyone’s out there and we hope that more are coming – especially from students.

As for the seminar, they had Michael Budi (CEO of AR & Co.), the afore-mentioned Peter Shearer, Ignatius Hardanto Subagyo (business director at Kompas), and Yasha Chatab (business development director at WIR). All were talking about augmented reality implementation and its future prospects in Indonesia. ARTX also held a competition to develop augmented reality apps both on mobile and PC for high school students and university students.

There haven’t been many startups developing augmented reality technology in Indonesia. One notable one might be Cherrypicks, which has a subsidiary company in Indonesia. It has really nice products and a number of clients already. I would definitely love to see more augmented reality implementation, especially coming from our own local startups.

Chinese casual gaming fans will soon be able to put down their smartphones and instead pick up their remote controls. That’s because Ubitus has just announced that its GameCloud platform will launch in the country in partnership with China Telecom on October 1st, 2012. It’ll bring “cloud gaming” to owners of web-enabled Smart TVs or set-top boxes, allowing them to play console-style high-definition games without the need to actually have a games console. The Ubitus library of licensed titles will bring games covering motor racing, sports, RPGs, virtual fighters, puzzlers, and more, all into the living room on the big-screen.

Games consoles like the Xbox are technically illegal in China, and are only available via the grey-import market. The only real – well, legal – challenger to this new Ubitus and China Telecom tie-up would be the newly-launched, home-grown CT510 ‘eedoo motion’ device.

Chinese brand Skyworth already has plenty of 'smart TV' models.

It gives Taiwan-based Ubitus the first commercial cloud gaming platform that’s running in China. No pricing details have yet been revealed, and this will likely be limited to China Telecom (NYSE:CHA; HKG:0728) home broadband subscribers who actually have a fast enough connection speed (after factoring in China Telecom losing more than half of your promised speed somewhere in the tubes) to handle this new wave of cloud gaming.

The deal also saw three major makers of HD smart TVs – China’s Skyworth and Konka, and South Korea’s LG (066570:KS) – brought in to demo the new platform at China Telecom’s own 2012 Tianyi (E-surfing) 3G Handset Fair which took place this weekend in Guangzhou, and where the announcement (pictured top) took place. It’s not clear if they’ll also be demoing the cloud gaming system in-store in the run-up to its October launch.

Just last week we looked at new stats which showed that 30 percent of new, web-enabled smart TVs were being sold in China, making the market second only in terms of enthusiastic adoption to Japan.

Korean manufacturer LG (066570:KS) has announced today that is is starting the global roll-out of its second-generation 3D smartphone, the Optimus 3D Max. The handset was first seen at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier in the year, but today it launches in Europe with other regions to follow later. At 9.6mm thin, it’s a slimmed-down successor to the LG Optimus 3D that was released in July 2011.

The 3D debate is still a fairly heated one in many circles [1], but LG appears confident that its glasses-less 3D mobile experience offers value for consumers. The company’s president and CEO, Dr. Jong-seok Park, explained:

We are deliberately pushing the limits of mobile entertainment innovation with the Optimus 3D Max. This device has evolved significantly … Our second generation glasses-free 3D smartphone is as thin and light as any other high-end smartphone while still de-livering a spectacular picture in either 2D or 3D.

The camera has two five megapixel lenses on the back, which can be used to shoot both 2D and 3D stills and video. You can playback 3D media on the phone, or connect to a 3D-capable TV or monitor. The Optimus Max, like the original Optimus, uses a parallax barrier on the display in order to deliver a 3D image, which I believe is the same approach taken by Nintendo with its 3DS.

The full spec sheet is below for the Optimus 3D Max is below, as well as a video demo from MWC 2012. If any of our readers owned the previous version of the Optimus 3D, his us up in the comments and let us know whether or not 3D capabilities have kept you interested over the past year.

Specifications:

• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 4.3-inch 3D WVGA display
• 8 gigabytes of on-board storage, support for microSD
• 1 gigabyte of RAM
• cameras: 2 x 5 megapixel on rear, VGA on front
• running Android 2.3 gingerbread (with an upgrade to 4.0 hopefully coming later)
• HDMI out for TV or monitor, up to 1080p resolution
• NFC support

When devices play in this mid-size space I tend to have mixed feelings. Here in Japan, where I live, I can see the value in larger mobile devices that can still be used if you’re clutching a strap while standing on a train. LG’s (066570:KS) new Optimus Vu LTE phone is the latest phone to play in this large-phone/small-tablet grey space. It was announced just before Mobile World Congress, boasts a 5-inch IPS display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and is being marketed as “a multimedia lover’s dream device.”

While the aspect ratio is neat, the shape is certainly unconventional (139.6 x 90.4mm) — and as you can see in the promo images below, that’s a pretty phat phone. It’s not quite square, but it’s getting there. The profile is very dainty in contrast though, at just 8.5mm thin.

The handset is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with a promised update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich said to be on the way. There’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. The Optimus Vu boasts 32 gigabytes of storage, and 1 gigabyte of memory.

This one drops in Korea in March, but so far there’s no word on price of availability in other regions. I should also note that LG just last week announced a new logo for its Optimus-brand smartphones, which you can also see below. As you can see, it’s awfully Transformers-ish.

Electronics maker LG (066570:KS) announced today that it will be releasing an LTE-capable tablet for its domestic market in Korea, the Optimus Pad LTE [1]. This follows the company’s Optimus LTE smartphone which has already been rolled out in Korea, Canada, the US, and most recently in Japan.

The Android 3.2 tablet is powered by a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual core processor, and has an 8.9 inch screen which with 1280×720 resolution. Dr. Jongseok Park, the company’s president and CEO noted:

With tablets generating five times more traffic than the average smartphone, it’s not a huge jump to assume that tablet users need and want faster connectivity.

I’m not sure where the doctor gets his statistics at, but I guess it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that there would be more video consumed on a tablet than on a mobile phone, especially one with a HD IPS display like the Optimus Pad. The device is also equipped with HDMI output so you can pipe your video to another display if you’d like.

According to The Verge, the LTE Optimus Pad will retail for 880,000 won in Korea (about $772) and will be available for purchase next week. No word on international dates or pricing yet.

LG (066570:KS) has just announced that it will be introducing a Google TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which kicks off next week. The television will feature an Android-based user interface, as well as LG’s Magic Remote Qwerty (a remote with a qwerty keyboard).

The television will also have 3D functionality, although personally I find the Smart TV functions more attractive (sorry, I really hope 3D dies this year!). LG’s promo picture of its new television shows an assortment of web-related functions, something which I usually find far more exciting than any 3D offerings I’ve seen to date.

LG will join Samsung (whose own Smart TV we wrote about before), Sony, and Vizio as Google’s other hardware partners which will be participating in CES. The search giant has a Google TV CES 2012 video now on YouTube (thanks Engadget!) which outlines the many functions available.

The sexy and slim Prada 3 smartphone, which LG (066570:KS) first unveiled two weeks ago in London, is available to Korean customers as of today with release in parts of Europe and Asia to follow in January. The phone will be first available on SK Telecom, and later on KT.

This is following on the company’s first two Prada phones, with the Prada 3 featuring — as you might expect — very sleek black design and a smart looking user interface. The fashionable phone is super skinny, measuring 8.5mm thin, and it’s apparently hungry for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, scheduled for the second quarter of 2012.

The phones specs are respectable, and are as follows:

• Operating System: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• Memory: User 8GB maximum (varies depending on carrier requirements)
• Display Size: 4.3 inches
• Resolution: WVGA (800 x 480)
• Display Brightness: 800 nit
• Camera: 8MP
• Processor: 1.0GHz Dual-Core / Dual Channel
• Battery: 1540mAh

You can check out a few more photos of the new LG handset below. More information on the Prada 3 can be found at pradaphonebylg3.com

2011 has been a big year for Android in Asia, hitting milestones in Japan and South Korea, whilst also expanding the smartphone ecosystem across the region thanks to its open-source tweak-ability.

Here are a dozen of the most significant Android-related stories we’ve covered at PO in the past year, in no particular order.

Android Market Expands to 131 Countries – But Not China

In a good, early omen for Android in Asia, the Android Market expanded to accept payments for apps in 131 countries across the globe. But a noticeable absentee was China, where Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) still seems to be marked out for its going public with claims of State-backed hacking in 2010.

Google Android Outgrows Apple in Japan Smartphone Market

But in Japan, Android has been having an easier ride and gaining momentum far earlier. To that end, it outgrew Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS platform in March of this year as Android soared to 4.6 million users across Japan.

SK Telecom Splashes US$924 Million for 4G LTE Spectrum

In neighboring South Korea, the rolling out of 4G networks is bound to be great news for Android, as no iPhone models support the faster mobile web system. Samsung (005930:KS) and LG (066570:KS) are the first to benefit.

Samsung Indonesia Scores Another First Day Sell-Out With Galaxy S2

Speaking of Samsung, it’s helping push forward Android in Indonesia, a country that has previously only been keen on BlackBerry-flavour smartphones.

Games Back in South Korea’s Android Market

Returning to South Korea for a moment, all game apps were barred from the local Android Market by a regulatory ban because of a lack of age ratings (well, the same fate befell Apple’s iTunes store too). But by November, the issue seemed resolved in the Market, and South Korean mobile gamers could get their thumbs back into the action.

Baidu Launches Android-Based Mobile OS

In September, China’s leading search engine, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) unveiled its Android-based mobile OS, called Baidu Yi. But we’d have to wait a few months to see it in the flesh – indeed, just yesterday, Dell launched the first Yi-powered phone.

Chinese-made Android Spyware Can Record, Upload Users’ Phone-Calls

But things have not been all rosy in Google’s low-walled garden. And a Chinese-made form of Android spyware was detected in the wild, hidden inside pirated and repackaged apps, that could listen in on people’s phone-calls.

Major HTC Android Security Flaw Revealed

It got even worse for HTC (TPE:2498) when it was discovered that every single phone running the newest and shiniest version of HTC Sense – like the HTC Incredible – was hiding a critical security flaw.

Samsung Dominates Android in China, But Tablets Growing Less Popular [INFOGRAPHIC]

To compound HTC’s woes – to say nothing of the ongoing legal wrangles with Apple – Samsung’s Galaxy S seems to be China’s favourite and most popular Android smartphone this year – stealing the crown from Taiwan’s HTC.

$50 Android Smartphones? Coming Next Month to China

Despite all the headlines devoted to slim and sexy gadgets, budget Android phones have been the secret sauce/source of its huge growth in Asia this year. And a new chipset by the Chinese manufacturer Spreadtrum (NASDAQ:SPRD) could bring the cheapest ones down to as little as US$50.

Asia Loves Android Apps, Has Most Downloads Per Capita [INFOGRAPHIC]

This month, Google celebrated its 10 billion apps milestone in its Market with a fancy infographic which revealed that the world’s top three app downloaders are all Asian nations.

Co-founder of Xiaomi Demos New Smartphone, Just Released [VIDEO]

Lastly, one of the most talked-about Android phones in China this year was from a small startup called Xiaomi, which made a home-grown dual-core Android beast for just 1,999 RMB. It’s based on Android and makes use of the team’s own MIUI UX, which has become popular amongst ROM lovers and modders around the globe. Our own Willis Wee went to Xiaomi HQ for a hands-on demo.

By the way, catch our full series of 2011 round-ups that we’re adding to throughout December.

We had a preview of LG’s Optimus LTE phone back in October at the unveiling of Docomo’s (NYSE:DCM) winter lineup. And today LG (003550:KS) is officially launching it in Japan, as we’ve received a short announcement from the company this morning.

With a 4.5-inch HD IPS display, and mobile wallet and one-seg functions, the handset is one of Docomo’s top Android offerings. And while the front view looks like most other high-end smartphones (iPhone and Galaxy S/SII), the bright red on the rear is a nice differentiator, though a cosmetic one. LG Mobile’s president and CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park noted:

The Optimus LTE is one of LG’s most promising devices and has already been received well in Korea, Canada and the United States… As a worldwide innovator in mobile LTE technology, we are committed to developing high-quality devices that showcase our technical experience and True HD IPS display.

For a closer look, you can check out some of LG’s kimono-tastic promotional images for the Optimus LTE below.

So I received an email announcement this morning about LG’s (SEO:003550) social Christmas promotion, which gives users a chance to win free phones like its Optimus 3D or Optimus Black. I didn’t think much of the contest until I noticed their gangsta ‘Lay-Z’ Santa promo video.

It looks as though someone in LG marketing broke out the eggnog a little early this year. The YouTube video they’ve put together is thoroughly cheeze-filled. The accompanying Facebook page invites fans to ‘like’ LG Mobile, and take a quiz for a chance to win their phones. LG CEO Dr. Jong-seok Park explained that

This event will serve as an excellent blueprint for further future promotions and we will continue to develop promotions and actively engage with our global fan base.

If that’s the case, I’m already looking forward to Easter! Snoop Bunny-bunn? The Notorious E.G.G. perhaps? Stay tuned!

Korean electronics company LG announced some big news today, disclosing that it has landed an exclusive deal with Japanese game developer Capcom to bring Street Fighter IV to the Android platform.

The popular game will be listed on LG’s global apps site in the fourth quarter of this year, and as one of the most popular game franchises in history, Street Fighter will bring some excitement and name recognition to LG phones for consumers.

The company’s CEO, Dr. Jong-seok Park, elaborated on the importance of offering HD content to its customers:

As we prepare our first HD smartphone for launch, it was important for us to be able to offer HD content that would really demonstrate this phone’s benefits. The HD version of Street Fighter certainly fills this objective. We are also confident that LG’s soon-to-be-unveiled HD display technology will give Street Fighter fans a whole new reason to play the game again.

Street Fighter featured prominently at the Tokyo Game Show this past weekend, most notably with Street Fighter x Tekken. And if you’re a fan of our Facebook page, you probably noticed that there was no shortage of pretty ladies promoting Capcom’s wares at TGS as well.

As we wrote here a few weeks back, Capcom is well aware that its future success depends heavily on its business overseas.

And to that end, smartphones are the perhaps the easiest way to extend its reach across the globe. This partnership with LG is a promising step in that direction.

LG Optimus

Korean electronics giant LG announced today that it will be demonstrating a 2D to 3D game conversion engine for smartphones at IFA 2011 in Germany next week.

The engine is based on the Open GL specification and will enable many gaming companies to serve up 3D versions of their existing 2D games.

LG’s 3D technology evangelist Henry Nho elaborated on how it works:

[It] automatically recognizes the depth information based on the location of each object and separates the 2D graphic images for each eye. Using the existing depth information, the [converter] generates two different images — one for the foreground and one for the background. It then uses a thin film called Parallax Barrier on the display to show the left image to the left eye and the right image to the right eye, creating an illusion of visual depth.

While a number of companies have bet heavily on 3D (LG, Sony, Toshiba to name a few), one of the problems facing the new technology is ensuring that there is enough content to make it an attractive buy for consumers. For LG, this effort makes its Optimus 3D smartphone and tablet look marginally better, if more games can be presented in a 3Dformat.

According to the announcement, 3D gameplay requires only that the game converter is installed, and then 2D games which have been optimized for conversion can be played in 3D. Of course, it remains to be seen exactly how many games will end up being optimized, but LG says that 50 games will be available by October, and another 50 by the end of the year.

Korea might enjoy the world’s – yes, not just Asia’s, but the world’s – best broadband, with average speeds of 13.7 Mbps, but its mobile networks have been lagging somewhat. But 4G smartphones across Korea are now a solid step closer to reality.

On Sunday, SK Telecom spent an astonishing 995 billion won (US$924 million) to secure a key 4G/LTE frequency. The telco giant is the biggest spender thus far in ongoing 4G spectrum auctions. The 20 megahertz of digital horsepower on the important 1.8 GHz band that it has just bought is strategically important. It’s enable SK to deliver the kind of speeds and bandwidth that it’ll need to try grab the lion’s share of 4G switchers.

Korea’s second largest mobile operator, KT Telecom, seems to have dropped out of the running over the weekend as prices soared for this 1.8 GHz spectrum. But has SK Telecom splashed out too much cash for this? One analyst, Park Jong Soo of Korea Securities, thinks not:

The company previously did not have a suitable long term evolution (LTE) spectrum. So for the company it’s better in the long term to pay this high price now than to lose it.

SK Telecom (SEO:017670; NYSE:SKM) shares in Seoul are currently up nearly 4 percent on the news. The NYSE has yet to open.

Not too far away, India is getting its 4G network together. This month, some key moves were made by both Indosat, with a new LTE testing lab, and Bakrie, with its purchase of a smaller operator that holds a national 4G license.

Expect some sweet Samsung and LG Android-powered 4G phones (pictured above) to be falling into the hands of some lucky people in Seoul later this year, or early 2012. But SK Telecom subscribers nationwide will likely have to wait until 2013 if they’re not based in the capital.

[Source: QQ Tech news - article in Chinese]

The program turns each ‘like’ into a brick that will be used to build a library for homeless children. Just a few days after it was launched on May 15, 10,000 Facebook users got in on the action by clicking the button. In order to get even more support, LG adjusted the program slightly by turning each click into a Rp1,000 donation ($US0.10). By the end of the campaign just a few days ago, Rp34,172,000 ($US4028 ) and 10,000 bricks had been collected.

Touched by participants’ enthusiasm, the company increased the donation to Rp200,000,000 ($US23,577) and gave it to the Kick Andy Foundation, a partner of the program. “Hopefully, we can build a proper library with an adequate book collection,” said the CEO of LG Electronics Indonesia, Kim Weon Dae.

In the wake of this program’s success, LG has launched a similar one for Ramadan called the Cup of Faith. It will turn every ‘like’ on the LG Loves Indonesia Facebook page and every tweet using #SharetheJoy on Twitter into a cup of rice (approximately 250 grams) for the less-fortunate.

The program is certainly a good example of how a corporation can employ Facebook in a manner that is socially responsible. We have written in the past about the frequent misuse of Facebook in Indonesia, so this story is somewhat refreshing, as it shows that the platform can indeed be used to do some good.

LG ♥ Indonesia

The plan is an attempt to make Indonesia’s migrant workers – who work in tough industries, such as domestic services and heavy industry – safer and more comfortable when overseas. It is arguably a response to the recent furore across the country – and especially on social media – to the execution by beheading of an Indonesian maid in Saudi Arabia, who was accused of killing her Saudi employer.

According to The Jakarta Post today, the government minister responsible for migrant workers, Jumhur Hidayat, said:

It is highly expected that the cell phones will enable them to communicate with their family members and related government authorities in Indonesia more frequently. Let’s hope that this reduces the amount of problems faced by migrant workers.

To claim their free phone, the workers need only fill out a registration form in their home country, and then use the resultant coupon to get their phone once they’ve arrived in South Korea.

The deal will provide 8,000 to 10,000 mobile phones each year. In just the first half of this year nearly 3000 workers went to South Korea for work, making it likely that this year will see a surpassing of 2010′s number of 4000 overseas workers in Korea.

It is likely that this government initiative could be expanded to other countries, since a trial run has already equipped workers that were heading to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

[Source: Jakarta Post]

According to a report from Voice & Data, Indian consumers purchased over 120 million handsets in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, on average that’s a remarkable 10 million phones per month. India also added 18 million mobile subscribers for the year, as handset market revenue grew 15% on the previous year.

Nokia still holds the largest share of the market at 39%, but posted a meagre growth rate of 0.2% on the year. When we attended the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing this year, Pankaj Choudhury, the managing director of iFree India explained:

India is getting hit from all sides in India. From NTK, Micromax. In India you need to roll out handsets very quickly, and Nokia isn’t doing that.

While Samsung holds the second spot at 17%, things get interesting after that with homegrown maker Micromax taking third posting 43% growth on the previous year, a Voice & Data explains:

Its success can be attributed to its strong distribution network and ‘good-looking’ phones at an affordable price. Certain credit can also be given to its brand promotional activities. It spent more money than any other mobile phone company in India on brand building.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC led the field in growth at 99.1%, but companies like G7Five, Intex, and Maxx are also doing surprisingly well.

For more on the rapidly growing mobile Industry in India, check out this recent infographic that summarizes some key numbers.

Chart: Revenue in crore for 2010-2011 (% growth on previous year), dark green = high growth, light green = low/negative growth)

Photo: Phones.com

This afternoon Docomo held a press conference to show off its new lineup of mobile phones for this summer season.

This time the Docomo repertoire includes nine smartphones, “the largest and most diverse collection of smartphones” the company has ever released.

To mark the occasion actor Ken Watanabe was on hand, as well as actress Maki Horikita (pictured right), both of whom star in Docomo commercials.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the standouts from Docomo’s summer line-up.

Docomo President Yamada

Docomo phone models holding various docomo phone models

The lineup includes a few world-firsts and various other superlatives. Most notable among them is the Sharp 3D Aquos SH-12C, one of the first mobile phones capable of capturing 3D video via its twin 8.0-megapixel cameras. The SH-12C is scheduled to launch on May 20.

Sharp 3D Aquos SH-12C

Sharp 3D Aquos SH-12C

Another Sharp model in the lineup is the AQUOS Phone f SH-13C, which Docomo says is the world’s first smartphone capable of wireless charging thanks to an accompanying charging pad. This handset is scheduled for a July or August release.

Sharp AQUOS Phone f SH-13C

The Sony Ericsson Xperia acro SO-02C comes with mobile-wallet functions as well as one-seg TV.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Acro

Sony Ericsson Xperia Acro

The ultra-thin Optimus bright L-07C is pegged as having the world’s brightest display, housed inside a slender 9.5mm thin body. Weighing in at a paltry 112 grams, this little number drops in mid June.

Optimus bright L-07C

Samsung’s Galaxy S II is another big name among the new handsets, a sporting hefty 1.2 GHz dual core processor as well as a 4.3-inch SUPER AMOLED display.

Samsung Galaxy S II

Another notable include the NEC MEDIAS WP N-06C, a waterproof model which Docomo says has the first 7.9-mm body.

NEC MEDIAS WP N-06C

The latest in internet television technology is moving into Indonesia as three major brands, Sony, LG, and Samsung, are now racing to market their online TV products in the country.

Sony has launched 23 models of Sony Bravia TV and 15 of them are internet TVs. With remote control and a qwerty keyboard, Sony Internet TV delivers traditional the television experience but you also can browse various websites, surf social media sites, and even make video calls.

Meanwhile LG is presenting the Infinia TV series and is working with some news sites like Detik.com, Kaskus.us, and Liputan6.com to bring news via internet TV.

And Samsung is launching its Smart TV in cooperation with the Antara and Jakarta’s traffic management center, TMC, for presenting the latest news. Smart TV can be associated with any Samsung devices in your home with a wireless connection.

Yoo-Young Kim, managing director of Samsung Electronics Indonesia, said that Indonesian people are now more sophisticated and prepared to accept the presence of multi-featured internet TV. He said, “I think the Internet TVs are only the beginning of the rise of the digital era.”

This certainly looks like an accurate assessment, especially when we see the development of the digital technologies, especially in Indonesia moving so fast.

Via Jakarta Globe

The iPad 2 launches in the U.S today (written on 4.20am GMT +8) and Asia and the rest of the world still has to wait. I stumbled upon a WSJ interview (video below) which talks about the impact of iPad 2 in Asia. It’s good and bad news.

Good: There would be increasing revenue for Samsung and Toshiba which make the memory chip for the iPad. Same goes to LG and Wintech which produce touchscreens for Apple. Bad: As the upgraded iPad launches, Asia based companies (ironically) like Samsung and LG, which also manufacture their own tablet products, would face rising competition. So far, none is able to challenge Apple on pricing. Apple is able to keep its price low because of its massive demand and the app store. The app store does provide Apple with a significant amount of revenue.

It isn’t just the big brands that are facing competition. Indonesia’s Picopad would also suffer as the current tablet doesn’t offer camera function. At a price of $520, most consumers would choose the iPad 2 over a Picopad. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs aptly described his counterparts, “While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we’re launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again.”

So, two more weeks before the iPad 2 finally launches in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and 23 other countries on 25 March. Hang on there.