At the LG-sponsored Chocolate Fashion show at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival, I found myself in a fascinating conversation with Frank Lee, a manager with LG Electronics Canada. We chatted about everything from HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray, to LG's internet appliance line, and I even got the inside scoop on some unbelievably cool products that LG is currently working on.

LG's presence at the TWSSF is extremely logical. Telus is the platinum sponsor for the event, and conviniently Telus happens to be the first Canadian cell provider to carry LG's popular chocolate cell phone - the Chocolate Flip 8600.

Frank was extremely positive about just how significant the Canadian market is for LG. "In the past few years, we've realized just how important the Canadian market really is. In terms of feedback, you can't get much better, it's almost like one giant focus group because you get so many different opinions. There's so much diversity." I asked him about a specific instance that he could think of, "our line of Digital Internet Appliances, definitely, is one of the first that comes to mind. Ultimately, those have been a real success for us, but in other cases we've even pulled certain products because we got feedback from Candians that we thought were so incisive, it resulted in us retooling the products."  

I also wanted to get Frank's opinion on the HD format wars. It turns out that LG already has a leg-up on the competition, "it's all about offering consumers a choice. We figured what better way to give them the maximum amount of choice than to allow both formats to work on the same player. That's what the Super blu HD Player is all about."

We talked a bit about some of LG's new phones and it was fairly clear that LG is really pursuing the Chocolate phone as a fashion statement (the outdoor fashion show was my first clue). I asked him about new phones we could expect from LG this year and he obviously couldn't reveal too many specifics, but he was definitely excited about it. "We have an innovative new phone coming out in Q4 that is going to be massive. We're pushing boundaries in the mobile market and we definitely think this phone is going to create a sensation."

I figured that since we were on the topic of LG's upcoming products, I asked him what product he thinks consumers will be most excited about that they may not have heard about yet. I got quite a response. "We've got 7 R&D centers worldwide, and they put together some incredible products. One that I think consumers will really be excited about is the new 3D plasma screen we're putting the finishing touches on. It's going to be a new manifestation in plasma television. I saw the prototype and I was speechless. It's that good."

A 3D plasma screen? I tried to get pricing and release details, but Frank insisted that we're going to have to stay tuned to find out.

To think that this was only the first day of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. An incredible 13 day extravaganza bringing together Skiing, snowboarding, music, art, and most importantly some of the most cutting edge tech you'll find anywhere.

Andrew Rideout