LG has sent out a press release proudly celebrating the record breaking sales performance of its latest tablet/smartphone hybrid, the Optimus G Pro. Having gone on sale in Korea at the end of February, before which time it racked up 10,000 pre-orders, the big-screen device has now reached a total of 500,000 sales after 40 days. This makes it LG’s fastest selling smartphone to date.
There’s no doubt this is an impressive figure for what is not only a massive phone, but also an expensive one, proving LG has come up with a winning formula for its first serious entry into the market. Well, we say serious, but LG has yet to provide any solid launch details on the Optimus G Pro for anywhere else in the world.
The Optimus G Pro received a soft-launch just before Mobile World Congress, where we had a chance to spend some time with the phone, and was confirmed for a North American release sometime in the summer. Since then, LG has remained silent. It’s a shame too, as the 5.5-inch 1080p screen and Snapdragon 600 processor make it standout, and we liked the unit we recently reviewed.
So, how is the Optimus G Pro doing compared to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, it’s closest rival? The Note 2 went on sale in September last year, and managed to achieve three million sales in a mere 37 days, plus by November 2012, it had added another two million to that figure following its release in the U.S. Fair enough, that does include other countries besides Korea, but it proves just how popular the stylus-sporting Note 2 has been. Here’s hoping the Optimus G Pro’s strong debut in Korea spurs LG on to give the device an international release date, preferably before Samsung starts to gear up for the release of the Galaxy Note 3.
