The growth marked the first successive increase for the market since the third quarter of 2008. Global shipments reached 265 million units in the second quarter, up from 253 million in the first.

"The moderate increase indicates the worldwide mobile handset market is bottoming out and now is returning to growth," said Tina Teng, senior analyst, wireless communications for iSuppli.

"Much of the growth was generated by two emerging regions: the Middle East and Latin America. Furthermore, several aggressive promotional campaigns boosted sales in North America, with regional shipments rising by 8 percent during the period."

The increase in shipments is positive news for the handset industry that has experienced nine months of decline. Shipments dipped 0.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008, by 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and by 16.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. By the first quarter of 2009, shipments had fallen by 58 million units compared to before the downturn in the second quarter of 2008.

 Shipments are set to rise by 6 percent to 280 million in the third quarter and by 8.3 percent to 304 million in the fourth. Even with the quarter-to-quarter increases, annual shipments are still expected to be down 9.9 percent in 2009, with the total for the year amounting to 1.1 billion units, down from 1.23 billion in 2008.

The best performance in the second quarter was posted by South Korea’s LG Electronics. LG’s mobile shipments increased to 29 million units in the second quarter, up 31 percent form 22 million units in the first quarter. Company market share rose by 2.3 points to 11.2 percent.

"LG strong performance in the second quarter was due to its success in emerging regions, including the Middle East and Africa," Teng said. "The company also managed to orient its product mix to more profitable handsets including new touch-screen devices."

LG says the new LCD and plasma HDTVs will be available this spring and will offer access to about 12,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix.

Last year Netflix and LG launched set-top boxes and Blu-ray DVD players that streamed Netflix content directly to TV.

Streaming content from Netflix to the LG HDTVs will rely on a broadband connection and queue based user interface. Netflix members will use the Netflix Web site to add movies and TV episodes to their individual queues. Their selections will be automatically displayed on members TVs.

LG will introduce four models, two LCDs with 42-inch and 47-inch screens, and two plasma TVs with 50-inch and 60-inch screens. The TVs are expected to cost about $300 more than other HDTVs.

"LG Electronics was first to embrace Netflix as a streaming partner a year ago, and was first in 2008 to introduce a Blu-ray disc player that streams movies from Netflix," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

"So it’s fitting that LG is the first to introduce Netflix instant streaming directly to the TV with these next-generation HDTVs."
 

Google is the third company this week to be involved in some type of mobile launch or application. Other companies that have launched mobile initiative include Yahoo with their Mobile Publisher service and Microsoft with their ZenZui’s Zooming User Interface, which looks to be a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

Deep Nishar, director of product management, Google, said, "We’re pleased to work with LG to make it easier than ever for mobile internet users to have powerful applications and personalized information at their fingertips."

"Users around the world now have more options for accessing information while on the go through search and Gmail. With applications like Blogger, users are now free to express themselves from wherever they are in the world."

The new LG handsets will have one click access to Google search through an icon in the application menu. They will also offer Google Maps for mobile, Gmail, and Blogger Mobile that will allows users to upload/download images and text to blog from their mobile devices.

LG and Google will jointly market the LG-Google handsets. Google has other similar deals with Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung Electronics to carry their search services.

LG will launch 10 new handsets in 2007 that will feature Google products and services. LG will be shipping the handsets worldwide through North America, Asia and Europe starting in the second quarter of 2007.

Paul Bae, Vice President of the Product Planning Team at LG Electronics Mobile Communications, said, "Building on our efforts to set new standards for wireless handsets, we are excited to partner with Google to offer extra value to consumers with enhanced mobile Internet experiences."

"LG’s mobile devices, combined with Google, will provide consumers with easy access to their favorite Internet services even without a PC and make it easy for them to stay connected while in motion."