LAS VEGAS ― LG Electronics plans to increase its global television market share to 27 percent by the end of this year, up from 18 percent in 2011, according to its home entertainment business chief on Wednesday.

Kwon Hee-won, president of the HE unit at the company, said that it also expects to see growth of 15-20 percent in sales of TVs throughout the year in a press conference held on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show.

The company will rise to the top of the ladder in 3-D TVs this year and seven out of 10 models will be released with the 3-D function, he said.

“We will become No. 1 by the yearend, considering that the firm’s market share has jumped to around 20 percent last year compared to 6 percent in 2010,” said Kwon.

He also said that the most promising next-generation item is set to be the company’s organic light-emitting diode TV, which is being jointly designed with its affiliate LG Display.

Its 3-D smart TV developed with U.S. search engine giant Google will be released exclusively in the U.S. market to widen the pool of customers, he said.

“We became the first Korean company to display the Google TV at the show and it was coming from the judgment that we will be able to sell the product by the first quarter,” said Kwon.

He added that it will also strengthen the firm’s lineup of smart TVs operating on LG’s proprietary platform NetCast and that it will unveil the product this year.

“The strengthening of the NetCast platform and the introduction of Google TV are both to provide convenience to our customers,” he said.

In a related effort, LG will roll out a remote control for smart TVs that recognize voice and motion from the first quarter of this year.

By Cho Ji-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)