LG has confirmed it will be bringing a series of Android mobiles to the UK in 2009, and that it will play a big part in pushing mobile social networking.

Although the much expected slew of Android handsets never showed up at this year’s Mobile World Congress, LG confirmed that 2009 will still be the year of Android for the company:

Head of marketing for LG Mobile in the UK, Jeremy Newing said:

‘We have a huge interest in using it for social networking handsets, as these are going to be big pillars of our strategy for 2009.’

There has been some criticism over LG’s strategy to use Android for the first time on the KS360, a QWERTY-based mid range handset, but Mr Newing believes the economic downturn has made this the ideal handset for the job:

‘The KS360 will be brought out in a 3G version, as well as an Android model too. We chose this lower-end handset as we’re in a recession, and customers want a value proposition while still expecting a similar level of functionality, so the handset has to be right for the price point.’

However, Newing also says that LG’s new S-Class interface, which uses two chipsets to help keep the animation and transitions running smoothly without lag, will also be used to varying degrees in a large number of LG phones, as well as the new Windows Phone interface making a big impression in the UK next year:

‘We will have a similar UI to the S-Class in more handsets, running the same two chipsets; the reason we haven’t done it before comes down to a lot factors, such as the size of the components.’