Seoul, August 15, 2009 - LG Electronics (LG), a major player in the global flat panel display, AV and mobile phone markets, announced that it won four awards in the 2009 European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) Awards. LG took top honors in four categories winning European Best Value LCD TV 2009-2010 for the SL8000, European Best Value Blu-Ray Player 2009-2010 for the BD390, European HT System 2009-2010 for the HB954PB and European Green Mobile Phone 2009-2010 for LG-KM900 or LG ARENA. There will be an official awards ceremony at IFA Berlin on September 4, 2009.
“Winning these awards confirms LG’s leadership in the European market and our ability to create products that meet the needs of consumers through a blend of smart technology and stylish design,” said Simon Kang, CEO of LG’s Home Entertainment Company. “We are honored to receive these prestigious awards from EISA and will continue to create products fit for European consumers’ tastes.”
“Receiving this award provides credence to LG’s strong commitment to maintaining sustainable business practices,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG’s Mobile Communications Company. “We are encouraged to have won the European Green Mobile Phone 2009-2010 award and will continue to balance the importance of increasing customer value with taking care of the environment. We want our European consumers to experience the best technology available while remaining as eco-friendly as possible.”
EISA is the largest editorial multimedia association in Europe, with a membership of 50 special interest magazines from 19 European countries. In June of each year, the editors-in-chief from all EISA member magazines meet to decide which of the products analyzed in their publications during the past year deserve the coveted EISA Awards.
LG’s winning products have been praised for combining elegant design with a series of advanced features and technologies. The SL8000 LCD TV is the pinnacle of design, boasting a unique face that makes it appear to be an uninterrupted sheet of smoky glass. In its commendation, EISA stated that the SL8000 “[provides] a great Full HD viewing experience at an affordable price,” and “convinces viewers with its natural-looking colors, amazing contrast and deep blacks”.
The LG BD390 Blu-ray player brings internet video and other online entertainment directly into the living room with its outstanding connectivity. According to EISA’s commendation, the BD390 not only features an “attractive price”, but that its “unique appeal is based on wireless connectivity plus complete compatibility with all the standard interfaces (USB, HDMI 1080p, S-Video, YUV), and it even provides 7.1-channel analogue outputs.”
The LG HB954PB, which also won a CES 2009 Innovations Award, is LG’s first premium Blu-ray home theater system and provides absolute clarity in audio and video as well as access to special content from Blu-ray discs and instant video streaming from YouTube. EISA recognized the HB954PB's "appealing design [and] balanced, detailed sound," as well as the "simple and easy installation”, before announcing that owners can, “experience Blu-ray in full High Definition and surround sound, for a high quality music and movie experience”.
The LG-KM900 or ARENA is LG’s premium mobile phone model that combines a sleek design and smart touch screen with LG’s three-dimensional S-Class User Interface. This is not the first year that EISA has recognized LG’s innovation. The company also took home three awards both in 2006 and 2007. In the case of this year’s awards, EISA had the following to say about the LG ARENA Phone:
“LG's KM900, otherwise known as the ARENA, is not only striking in appearance but is also the ‘greenest’ fully featured mobile phone on the market today. The ARENA is up with the best in terms of its environmentally-friendly packaging but sets the standard in respect of component and material application, as analysed by SIMS Recycling. Beauty and intelligence combine in the ARENA to produce a genuinely ‘green’ mobile phone.”
LG’s home entertainment and mobile products have become ubiquitous in many of Europe’s biggest retail stores. Shipments of LG’s flat-panel TV increased to 1.67 million units from April to June 2009, up from 1.09 million units in the same period the year before. In mobile phones, LG saw its European sales jump from 3.84 million devices in the second quarter of 2008 to more than 5 million units a year later. LG products’ ability to defy the recession has been a bright spot in an otherwise dim European market.
