LG's latest phone and smartwatch coming in May

The company has confirmed a product launch event for May 27 that will take place in six different cities -- San Francisco, New York, London, Seoul, Singapore and Istanbul -- over the course of two days, due to the time differences between the regions.

The company has confirmed a product launch event for May 27 that will take place in six different cities -- San Francisco, New York, London, Seoul, Singapore and Istanbul -- over the course of two days, due to the time differences between the regions.

LG is trying to build suspense as to what to expect from the events. It is simply using the tag line 'To be simple is to be Great' a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, on the invitations. However, in its latest earnings report, published this week, it says that it is planning to launch its latest flagship smartphone (the LG G3) in the first (rather than second) half of 2014.

Recent leaks suggest the handset will have a 2K (QHD) display, a monster camera and new levels of personalization and customization when it comes to the interface. Also expect it to match or better the Samsung Galaxy S5 in terms of internal specifications, and it could even boast some sort of biometric sensor, most likely a fingerprint scanner.

There is also a good chance that LG will use the global nature of the event to unveil the G Watch, a smartwatch that it has been teasing for nearly two months and a product around which a sizable buzz is already being generated.

The watch, one of the first devices to run Google's Android Wear operating system, will offer notifications and contextual information based on the wearer's location, preferences and profile and will be sufficiently water and dust resistant to withstand a bit of rough treatment while being worn by an outdoor sports enthusiast.

The latest quarterly smartphone shipment figures from Juniper Research, from Strategy Analytics and from IDC, all published this week, show that LG is enjoying a rich vein of form at the moment, so much so that it has moved back into the top five handset makers globally behind Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Lenovo, thanks to shipments in excess of 12 million units over the last quarter.