PCs aren't disappearing anytime soon: Lenovo CEO

China's Lenovo Group Ltd, on track to become the world's No.1 personal computer maker, is leveraging on what it calls the "PC plus" era as the company ramps up its plant capacity in major markets including the United States.
PC demand growth has waned over the past year as more consumers flock to ultraportable and increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones for basic computing. Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell and other stalwarts of the PC industry are now fighting to sustain growth as tablet computers eat into their PC-related businesses.
But PCs aren't disappearing anytime soon.
"We don't live in a post-PC world," Lenovo Chief Executive Yuanqing Yang said in an interview in Las Vegas on Wednesday. "We are entering the PC plus era."
Yang said it is a post-PC world for one group companies that do not innovate in PCs.
"In our industry many players think PCs have become a commodity product," he said. "We have never thought this way."
Lenovo, he said, has redefined the category with products like Yoga, a laptop running Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 that can be converted to a tablet PC by flipping the screen all the way backwards, and Twist, another laptop that has a screen connected through a hinge.
The two laptops have had brisk sales in the United States with Lenovo capturing 40 percent consumer market share in the $900 and above category.
Market share
Lenovo vaulted into the PC market by buying IBM's personal computer division in 2005. It has become a force through aggressive pricing, overseas acquisitions and taking advantage of a fast-growing home market.
Lenovo is lagging HP in PC shipments in the third quarter by less than half a percentage point, according to IDC, a consultancy. IDC placed HP at the No.1 spot with a 15.9 percent market share, marginally ahead of Lenovo's 15.7 percent share.
But Gartner, a rival to IDC, said Lenovo held the lead, with a 15.7 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012 compared to HP's 15.5 percent.
A year earlier, HP held a 17 percent market share while Lenovo held 13.1 percent, Gartner said. In the third quarter of 2010, Lenovo ranked fourth with 10.4 percent, trailing HP with 17.5 percent, Acer with 13.1 percent, and Dell with 12.2 percent.
"Now we are nurturing new areas including smartphones and tablets," Yang said. "We have focused on this change for many years. We have prepared for this trend."
Diverse workforce
One of the secrets of Lenovo's success, apart from its strategy, is its diverse workforce, Yang said. Its nine-person executive team represents six countries, he said.
The company wants a manufacturing footprint to match, with plans to increase the number of plants in most of its major markets. It is building a plant in the U.S.
It also plans to add more local products and local research and development.
"We want to be a global-local company," Yang said.
Last year, Lenovo bought Brazilian electronics maker CCE, and U.S. cloud computing firm Stoneware.
Lenovo, which is making a concerted global push into tablets and ultrabooks, does not expect to launch a smartphone in the U.S. until it has more U.S. brand recognition, said Gerry Smith, head of North American business for Lenovo.
The lucrative U.S. phone market is dominated by Apple Inc and Google Inc gadgets.
Lenovo launched a number of smartphone models, including the S890 with a 5-inch screen, at the Consumer Electronics show, for distribution in various markets.
In its biggest market by revenue, China, it has 15 percent of smartphone sales, according to Gartner.
© Thomson Reuters 2012

Panasonic may sell non-core money-making business units to raise cash

Japan's Panasonic Corp may see its headcount fall further and may sell non-core money-making business units to raise cash, president Kazuhiro Tsuga told reporters at the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Hammered by competition from South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics, Panasonic may also squeeze wages and seek joint ventures in its semiconductors and other struggling operations in a bid to rekindle profit growth, Tsuga said.
Shares in Panasonic slipped 1.4 percent to a two-week low in Tokyo morning trade, compared to a 0.4 percent increase on the benchmark Nikkei average.
The Panasonic chief said in an earlier keynote speech he would pursue strategies to expand business-to-business sales of car batteries, in-flight entertainment systems, hydrogen cells, solar panels and LED lighting.
Japan's share of the world's flat panel TV market this year likely contracted to 31 percent compared with 41 percent in 2010, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
Panasonic earlier unveiled a prototype of the world's largest organic light-emitting display screen in a show of technological one-upmanship with its South Korean rivals Samsung and LG Electronics Inc.
Sony Corp, which is cooperating with Panasonic in OLED technology, unwrapped on Monday its own 56-inch ultra high-definition model.
Tsuga, who heads Japan's biggest commercial employer with 300,000 staff, is also pursuing a niche strategy and bolstering the company's appliance business in a bid to capture more profitable markets while the likes of Samsung and Apple Inc slug it out in mass-market consumer electronics.
The executive has promised to deliver the details of the revival plan by the end of March, when he plans to reorganize 88 businesses into 56 units.
So far he has said that businesses that fail to achieve a 5 percent operating margin within two years will be shuttered or sold. Sales of the weakest ones may start next business year. Panasonic in the year to March 31 is forecasting a net loss of $8.9 billion.
© Thomson Reuters 2012

Huawei finally launches Ascend W1 with Windows Phone 8

After launching Huawei Ascend Mate and Ascend D2 at the CES 2013, the Chinese handset maker is now showing some Windows Phone 8 love.
Huawei had long been mentioned as one of the four original Windows Phone 8 manufacturers and while we've seen Windows Phone 8 offerings from Nokia, HTC and Samsung, Huawei had been missing in action until now.
Huawei has finally launched its Ascend W1 smartphone, which comes with a 4-inch IPS LCD screen and a resolution of 480x800. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8230 dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM. There is 4GB on-board memory, which can be expanded to up to 32GB with a microSD card.
Huawei Ascend W1 runs on Windows Phone 8 and comes with 1,950mAh battery that claims to give 470 hours of standby time,. There is 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash on-board.
The company has announced that this smartphone will be first available in China and Russia markets from January 2013. Later it will be available to UK customers through operators Telefonica O2. It will come in two colour options - blue and ruby-pink. So far, Huawei has not indicated the price for this smartphone.
Huawei Device UK and Ireland Executive Vice President Mark Mitchinson said: "Windows Phone 8 is tremendously exciting in terms of both its functionality and the practical benefits it delivers. With the Ascend W1, Huawei has created a product to put this fresh smartphone experience within reach of a much wider audience. O2's record of championing innovative brands and technologies is remarkable, and we are delighted to partner with it for launch of the Ascend W1 in the UK."


Key Specs of Huawei Ascend W1

• 4-inch IPS LCD screen with 480x800 resolution
• Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8230 dual-core 1.2GHz processor
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB internal storage, can be expanded up to 32GB
• 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera
• Windows Phone 8
• 1,950 mAh battery