Apple has a tendency to reduce its competitors to a quivering mess. Not so LG Electronics, which yesterday delivered a bullish account of its ability to compete with the computer maker when it releases its long-awaited iPhone on to the European market at the end of the year.

John Barton, the company’s head of sales for mobile in the UK, welcomed the impending battle for the hearts and minds of high-end phone users, maintaining that Apple was inexperienced in phones, and that LG would enjoy a healthy head start.

“The truth is, you have to respect Apple,” Mr Barton told The Times. “But is it a mobile phone manufacturer? No. And will it face tough competition from similar phones like ours? Yes.”

The source of his confidence, promptly produced from his jacket pocket, is a sleek, black handset which has a screen covering nearly its entire front, and a single word "Prada" embossed at the top.

“We’re bringing the Prada phone out in March. That gives us at least six months in which to establish a presence before Apple arrives,” Mr Barton said.

Both phones will compete for the fashion conscious, but LG is hoping that the Prada, which uses similar "touchscreen" technology to the iPhone and had design input “right from the top of the fashion label”, will strike a chord first.

“There’s been a lot written about Prada and iPhone - whether Apple copied our design, whether we own the technology. None of it is true but it is flattering to be compared with them nonetheless,” he said.

LG has a strong track record in high-end phones, which have become an increasingly important sector of the market because of the higher margins that can be made. More than 700,000 of its Chocolate phones were sold in the UK in the past year, and the company is hoping that Shine, the successor to Chocolate, which has a screen that turns into a mirror, will also prove popular with women.

As ever, though, sales will turn on price, and it remains to be seen whether the fashionistas can be forced to part with $775 (£395), which is Prada’s anticipated asking price, well above the $499 for the lesser version of the iPhone.

The handset market, too, has suffered from strong pricing pressure in general in recent months. In January, LG announced that profits in its mobile division, which represents more than a quarter of its overall business, fell by 70 per cent. Samsung and Motorola have also posted earnings that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

“There’s been a lot of competition, with many new products entering the market, and we won’t see that easing,” said Brian Na, president of LG Electronics UK, at the London launch of Shine. “We are confident, however, that if we continue to deliver innovative, design-led handsets, we can enhance our overall profitability.”

Mr Na said that LG had a two-fold strategy for developing its mobile business, which involved continuing to exploit the desire for top-tier handsets in mature markets such as the UK, while growing the LG brand in emerging markets such as China, Russia and India.

“In Korea, the fashion is for high-end phones, and we hope that we can continue to nurture a desire for similar phones in developing markets,” he said.

Last month the company forecast a 20 per cent growth in handset shipments this year to 78 million, almost double the predicted growth of 11 per cent for the industry as a whole.

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