Lenovo to zero in on emerging markets
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Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd said it will aggressively expand in emerging markets while holding the lead position in its home market this year.
Yang Yuanqing, chief executive of the world's fourth-largest PC maker, said that the company will further cash in on the fast development in these markets.
"We are aiming for double-digit market share in India, Russia, Turkey and Poland in the next one to two years," he said on May 27 at a media briefing discussing results for its fiscal year ended March 31.
The company said profit for the fourth quarter ending March 31 was $12.8 million, compared with a $264 million loss a year earlier.
Sales rose 56 percent from the same quarter in 2009 to $4.3 billion.
Its year-on-year personal computer (PC) shipments rose 104 percent in India, 70 percent in Southeast Asia, and 105 percent in Latin America during the quarter.
Yang added that Lenovo will also enlarge its market share in China with its latest smartphone, LePhone.
"We are confident that LePhone will do better than the iPhone in China," said he.
The company launched its Android-based smartphone last month priced at 2,899 yuan ($366) to challenge the US Apple's popular smartphone.
But the company said it doesn't expect the product to turn a profit this year and will invest heavy in marketing in order to quickly grab the market share.
The company went back to the mobile phone market last year when it bought back a mobile unit it sold less than two years earlier.
It had sold the unit to focus on its core PC business, but returned to the mobile market recognizing the growing convergence between smartphones and PCs.
China continued to fuel much of its growth, as consumers bought more PCs and other electronics products, stimulated by economic incentives from the central government.
The country accounted for 47 percent of its $16.6 billion full-year revenue, which rose 11 percent from $14.9 billion from a year earlier, according to the company.
Its full-year net profit hit $129 million.
"I expect mobile Internet products will account for 10 to 20 percent of Lenovo's revenue in five years," Yang said earlier.
The company also said it may launch a simplified version of LePhone in China that will be priced for the low-end market.
But Yang noted that the company is facing growing challenges in the domestic market as international competitors are intensifying their investments and marketing in the country.
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