Lenovo execs: a 'golden opportunity' for global growth

A Lenovo retail outlet in Singapore [Gao Yuan / China Daily]

Southeast Asian markets are turning into a key battle ground for electronics vendor Lenovo Group Ltd as the world's biggest personal computer company seeks ways to gain a stronger global presence.

The 600 million population plus the optimistic economic outlook in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc will provide a "golden opportunity" for the Beijing-based company to build a next-generation profit model amid an evident fall in the PC global market, company executives said.

The growing demand in consumer electronics is the most valued asset for Lenovo in ten ASEAN countries, which include Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country; Vietnam and Myanmar, the emerging global economic turbines and Singapore, the richest city state in Asia.

Chen Xudong, senior vice-president of Lenovo, said the consumer electronics market in ASEAN hides a huge potential and the companies who are able to provide the best fitted products will gain great profit in the coming years.

"ASEAN is an extremely diversified market because each country has its own distinctive advantages as well as weak points," said Chen, adding that Lenovo has to carefully study every market to get a bigger presence.

Lenovo's market share in ASEAN reached a record high of 11.9 percent during the first quarter of the new fiscal year, which started in April. Its market share was 8.9 percent a year ago.

Roughly 60 percent of Lenovo's revenue in the region came from the consumer market and the company is trying to expand its "healthy growing" consumers business in the coming years.

Among the eight markets where Lenovo's PC market share hit double digits as of June, five economies came from the ASEAN bloc.

The Beijing-based company is getting nearly 20 percent market share in Malaysia, the highest in the region.

A total of 100,000 Lenovo smartphones were sold in the Southeast Asia market in the first quarter, said the company.

But because of the unique market landscape in different countries, Lenovo has to learn new strategies to tap into new markets.

In Singapore and other developed markets, contract phones could take more than 90 percent of market share because the competition among telecom carriers is extremely intensive, according to Quek, Lenovo's Singapore head.

"Vietnam only has second-generation network so most of the customers are price sensitive," said Chen.

The demand in Indonesia is similar to other developing nations while in Jakarta, its capital and richest area in the country, smartphone buyers are more interested in higher end devices despite the higher price tag, said Chen.

"When people think of ASEAN, they see ten countries. But for Lenovo who is determined to expand in each of the ten markets, we have to carefully examine every demand and appreciate the uniqueness in order to beat competitors," he added.

The executives at Lenovo are keen about their "attack and protect" strategy ever since the company unveiled its smartphone, tablet and smart television products.

"High-end smartphone market will continue to be the most valuable territory for us because the market is getting matured and the competition is intense," said Chen.