Lenovo eyes bigger share of global PC market

Chinese PC maker Lenovo, already the world's largest in terms of shipments, aims to widen its lead in the PC sector, with the company's chief vowing Tuesday to raise its share of the global PC market to 20 percent in its fiscal year 2014.

The PC industry is going through a wave of consolidation - Sony and Samsung are seen fading away in PC businesses, and Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are seen to be not as focused in the PC segment, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO, said on Tuesday.

This trend would translate into room for further growth, Yang said, revealing his ambition of further intrusion into the global PC battlefield - to hit 20 percent market share globally in its current fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.

In the first quarter of 2014, Lenovo continued its lead in the world's PC market with a 17.7 percent share, while HP and Dell took the second and third spots, respectively, with 17.1 percent and 13.4 percent market share, figures from US-based market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) showed on April 9.

During the quarter, worldwide PC shipments shrank 4.4 percent year-on-year, according to IDC.

The results were better than the research firm's previous projection of a decline of 5.3 percent for the first quarter.

A rebound is seen in the PC sector at large, said Gianfranco Lanci, ex-CEO of Taiwan PC manufacturer Acer and now head of Lenovo's PC unit.

In addition to continued growth opportunities in China, Lenovo sees opportunities across the rest of the world, even the US market where HP and Dell have firmly established their positions, Lanci told the Global Times at a briefing after the event.

In the US, HP and Dell took market share of 25.6 percent and 24.5 percent respectively to be the top two PC vendors, while Lenovo held a third spot with 10.8 percent market share, IDC statistics showed.

The PC business, which accounts for almost all of Lenovo's earnings, will continue to be the company's core business segment despite the changing market currents, Yang noted Tuesday.

Meanwhile, he disclosed targets of selling 80 million smartphones and 20 million tablet devices globally throughout the current fiscal year, as part of the company's reorganization efforts to diversify its portfolio.

In a sign of ambitious reorganization plans, Lenovo announced two acquisitions in January, the purchase of IBM's x86 server business and smartphone maker Motorola Mobility.

The acquisitions are expected to be completed over the next few months, according to Yang.

Lenovo has shown its strength in gaining market share, and the key to its future would be its ability to capitalize on the acquisitions to raise profit margins and reach out to the critical overseas markets in particular, Wang Jun, an industry analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Analysys International, told the Global Times Tuesday.