HONG KONG, July 26 — It may have raised a few eyebrows when first reported but the people at Lenovo now look almost certain to make good on their promise to become the world’s top supplier of personal computers.
File photo of a Lenovo shop in a computer mall in Beijing. The company is close to becoming the world’s top supplier of personal computers. — AFP picThe rise of the Chinese company over the past 20 years has been quite astounding and figures released by the United States-based research company Gartner show Lenovo now claims a 14.7 per cent share of the global PC market — up from 12.7 per cent at the same time last year and fast closing in on the 14.9 per cent share held by the American giants Hewlett-Packard.
Similar research by America’s IDC show the figures to be 14.9 per cent for Lenovo (up from 11.9 per cent) and 15.5 per cent for HP, down from 17.6 per cent.
While the global PC market is feeling the effects of the rise of both tablet computers and smartphones, Lenovo has forged ahead with a global marketing push that sets the company up as a serious, cheaper PC alternative.
To that end the company has launched the likes of its ThinkPad X131e globally and has priced the PC at around €450 (RM1,800) while its lightweight IdeaPad U310 comes in at around €660.
Lenovo is expected to ship around 13 million units globally this year, up from 10.3 million in 2011.
And while the company has long held global ambitions, it seems Lenovo’s work back home is coming along quite nicely as well.
According to a report this week posted on Sina Weibo, Lenovo has taken over as China’s second largest supplier of mobile phones.
The report — posted on the account of Lenovo China president Chen Xudong — claims the company now has an 11 per cent share of the Chinese market, second behind Samsung’s 15.73 per cent.
China’s Huawei sits in third place with 9.54 per cent, while Nokia takes fourth with 9.42 per cent, according to Chen’s post, which itself cites a report from the Beijing-based SINO Market Research.
China’s mobile phone market is yet another that continues to boom and it has this year reached more than one billion subscribers, making it by far and away the world’s largest. — AFP-Relaxnews