Until recently LG was known as a company that manufactured only featured phones. But from 2010 they switched to smartphones, and very soon they made the first 3D-capturing smartphone in the world. Now they have decided to devote themselves to making smartphones. The company’s plans on this year are really ambitious — the senior LG exec told Korea Times in an interview that in 2012 they will sell 80 million phones in total, 35 million of which will be smartphones. Moreover, 8 million of them will be LTE-enabled (since Europe is going to launch the first LTE networks this year, we can assume those handset won’t be designed for the US and Canada only).

LG has already introduced its “universal soldiers” that will make company’s comeback. Among them we must mention the first quad-core LG Optimus 4X HD, the successor of the LG Optimus 3D, the first smartphone with 4:3 ratio aspect display dubbed the LG Optimus Vu and three L-style handsets designed for each of smartphone market’s niches.

Besides the aforementioned smartphones LG has other secondary models ready to help the company to implement its plans. Among them the most noteworthy is the LG Prada 3.0, which is an ideal option for fashionistas.

On the other hand, LG’s statement is not something surprising, as last year the company sold 88 million devices, though we must note that most of them were featured phones. So we can assume the company will just switch to making more high-end handsets.