Lenovo, China’s multinational electronics maker, is targeting the high-end computing market, even as it expands U.S. operations and is poised to become the world’s number one computer maker.
Lenovo is restructuring into two groups: the Idea Group, which will focus on mainstream products, and the Think Group, which will focus on competing against Apple, Beijing’s China Daily reported.
“Lenovo’s revenue has grown from $1.3 billion to almost $30 billion over the past four years,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO, at this week’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. “Our growth needs a restructuring.”
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China Daily noted Lenovo already has a commanding share of the domestic Chinese market. Gerry Smith, president of Lenovo North America, claimed the company is the “fastest growing PC company over the past 10 quarters in North America.”
Lenovo, which acquired IBM's personal computer business in 2005, is placing emphasis on opening more retail stores in North America. Sales of its PCs priced over $799 accounted for about half of its North American sales in the fiscal quarter ended in June. The company recently announced it would open a U.S. plant in North Carolina.
Smith said Lenovo intends to keep investing in innovation and brand awareness, but he did sound one note of caution at CES.
“The biggest challenge we face now are the financial uncertainties in the U.S. Big companies are waiting to see what happens before they decide to buy.”
Lenovo trailed Hewlett Packard in global PC shipments by less than half a percentage point in the third quarter of 2012, with a market share of 15.7 percent versus HP’s 15.9 percent, according to tech consultancy IDC data cited by Reuters.
But another tech consultant, Gartner Group, estimated Lenovo has already surpassed HP in market share, 15.7 percent to 15.5 percent, respectively.
Yang said Lenovo is already moving beyond PCs, Reuters reported. “Now we are nurturing new areas including smartphones and tablets.
“We have focused on this change for many years. We have prepared for this trend.”
Yang said Lenovo wants to boost the number of plants it operates in markets worldwide, and add more local products and local research.
“We want to be a global-local company,” he said.
Editor's Note: I Wish I Were Wrong — Economist Laments Being Right. See Interview.
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