LG Electronics India on Thursday entered the information technology (IT) hardware segment by launching a slew of high technology products.

The Rs 10,730-crore company has launched network monitors offering multi-user computing solutions based on virtulisation, projectors, digital signage and network-attached storage (NAS) device.

Till date LG Electronics only offered PC monitors and optical drives in India catering to the consumer segment. With these new products, the business solutions division of LG Electronics aims to clock revenues of Rs 1,100 crore in 2009, up from Rs 989 crore in 2008.

“With the new products, the contribution to the pie will be well-balanced between B2B and B2C segments,” said R Manikandan, marketing head, business solutions, LG Electronics India. Until now, PC monitors accounted for 70 per cent of the revenues of the business solutions division. LG Electronics has 20 per cent market share in the estimated 5.5 million units PC monitor market.

LG Electronics will target education, government, business process outsourcing and the small and medium businesses segment with these new products. The company hopes to sell one million liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, 40,000 network monitors, in addition to 16,000 commercial display digital signage and 5,000 projectors this year. Moon B Shin, managing director of LG Electronics India, said, “Going forward, we will come up with integrated solutions offering besides new technology products to cater to the B2B market.” The digital signage, NAS and projectors would be imported from South Korea, while the network monitor will be manufactured at the company’s plant in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the company plans to set up a design centre in Noida besides expanding its research and development (R&D) base there. LG Electronics has earmarked an investment of Rs 400 crore for R&D. In the past five years, the company has invested Rs 200 crore every year on R&D and from this year onwards, the company aims to double this investment. LG Electronics India aims to achieve turnover of Rs 13,000 crore in 2009.

Further in the consumer electronics segment, LG Electronics plans to launch water purifiers and air cleaners in the near term.