LG Electronics (SEO: 066570), the world’s fourth largest handset maker, said it expects to achieve only “slight” growth in cellphone sales in 2009, down from its average handset growth rate of about 30 percent in previous years, reports Reuters. It’s not such a different story from its larger rivals Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Samsung, both of whom warned in November that handset sales would fall next year. But despite the grim conditions, LG’s mobile communications unit president and chief executive Skott Ahn said that the Korean company would strive to increase its overall market share to 10 percent up from its current 8 percent. In the third quarter, LG sold 23 million phones, down 27.7 million in the second. Ahn also said that LG was sticking to its sales target of 100 million phones for next year. Though Ahn said the company would try to reach that goal “at any cost,” he also said LG but would not be competing on cost and slashing phone prices, something that Nokia has also said.

How realistic is the goal of increasing market share to 10 percent? Given that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) are struggling, its possible to see LG’s market share up, though overall sales might be down. The battleground will most likely be North America, where 45 percent of LG’s sales came from in the second quarter. Motorola, the region’s traditional leader was surpassed in Q2 by Samsung, while Nokia, the world leader, still struggles to gain traction in the US. Moreover, the first two quarters of 2009 are expected to be particularly bad for Motorola, as new handsets aren’t expected to launch till Q3. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, as of the third quarter, LG had a 20.5 percent share of the US market, while Samsung had 22.4 percent and Motorola had 21.1 percent. It’s not hard to see LG growing at the expense of Motorola.

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