LENOVO, the China-based computer company that develops, manufactures and markets desktop and notebook computers, workstations, servers, storage drives, IT management software and other related products and services, has identified countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region as major growth drivers for its goal to acquire a bigger share in the market.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Koh Kong Meng, General Manager and Executive Director of Lenovo Asean, said the regional bloc will continue to drive business success and profitability due to its high population yet low PC penetration rate such as in the Philippines.
According to the International Data Corp.n, Lenovo grew twice the speed of the market, posting a 27-percent growth in the last quarter
“There is no doubt that Asean is a significant part of the business because it has a lot of emerging markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines,” said Kong Meng, during the interview held in Makati City.
“Lenovo sees continued growth in emerging markets. It has solid pipeline of innovative mobile Internet devices and had a recent successful tablet launch.
Kong Meng said the small and medium business (SMB) sector is an important element because it is the largest and fastest-growing commercial segment globally.
“By 2014, the compound annual growth rate for SMB laptops is expected to be 22 percent worldwide. Today, with the recently announced ThinkCenter Edge 91z, we have continued to expand offerings that combine style, performance and price effectiveness to best address the IT needs of SMBs of all sizes,” he said.
Kong Meng said Lenovo has a two-fold growth and profitability strategy, called “Protect and Attack.” He said “Protect” indicates making the core businesses in China and in global commercial markets secure while “Attack” handles the key growth opportunities in emerging markets and the global transaction space, including consumer and SMB segments.
He said Lenovo is continuously investing in building core competencies, branding, product innovation and new segments which include mobile internet and digital home. Furthermore, he said the company’s growth is also driven continuously through organic and inorganic expansion.
“The joint venture with NEC Corp. made Lenovo the No. 1 PC vendor in two out of the three largest PC markets in the world, No. 1 in global enterprise notebook market and No. 1 in global emerging markets including China,” he said.
Kong Meng said Lenovo’s acquisition of MEDION, a leader in PC, multimedia products, mobile communications service and electronics in Germany doubled the company’s market share in Germany, making it the second-largest PC company in Europe’s largest PC market. He said the acquisition also bolsters Lenovo’s presence in consumer PCs and high-growth mobile Internet market.
He said Lenovo continues to dominate the growing PC market because it employs the right strategy and strong execution to drive continued product innovation and achieve long-term sustainable growth for the benefit of employees, customers, business partners and shareholders.
“Lenovo is confident that it will continue to outperform and outgrow the market to be positioned as a strong challenger to ultimately become the global PC market leader: Lenovo is now No. 1 in two of the three top PC markets, China and Japan. The China PC market [now the world’s largest] continues to gain growth momentum. Corporate PC refresh cycle continues to gain momentum,” he said.
