Lenovo Group expects wireless internet products to account for up to 80% of its sales within five years as it pursues expansion in faster-growing emerging markets, CEO Yang Yuanqing has said. Skip related content
Lenovo, the world’s fourth-largest personal computer maker, jumped into the mobile internet market in January with the unveiling of a smart phone and two web-linked portable computers.
“Mobile internet is very important,” Mr Yang said in an interview. “Even today, notebook sales already are higher than desktops. Mobile internet products are going to be 70 to 80% of our sales … within three to five years.”
Mr Yang said Lenovo plans this year to focus on promoting mobile internet and sales in emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Lenovo, based in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, was hit hard by the global crisis, which prompted its core corporate customers to slash spending. It suffered three losing quarters before rebounding to a profit in the second half of last year.
Mr Yang said Lenovo’s longer-term strategy, dubbed “protect and attack”, calls for building up its dominant presence in China. The country accounts for nearly half of Lenovo’s global sales but it faces competition from industry leaders Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which are creating products tailored to Chinese customers.
In the latest quarter, Mr Lenovo said sales in India and other emerging markets rose 52% over a year earlier, far ahead of the 13% sales growth reported for the US and Western Europe.
Lenovo, which acquired IBM’s PC unit in 2005, says its global market share last year rose to 9%, its highest level to date.
Mr Yang said Lenovo has no plans for foreign acquisitions but is ready to look at any deals that fit its strategic plans.
Corporate spending on computers has yet to rebound but companies are expected to step up purchasing in the second half of this year, Mr Yang said. He said he could not foresee when global PC sales might recover to pre-crisis levels.
Review: Asus VH232H
The VH232H is great on build quality, but stumbles on image quality. Colour accuracy isn’t its strong point, sharpness is set too high and movie watching over HDMI isn’t the best; but if you just want to do some basic gaming, it might fit your bill.
Summary Box: Palm struggles in its phone comeback
PALM’S PROBLEM: As smart phones have gotten more popular, Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerrys have benefited while Palm has fallen behind.
Reports say referee Paul Marks sacked
Australian rugby Referee Paul Marks has paid the price for his controversial decision not to award the Sharks a penalty try against NSW last Saturday night.
Your Next E-Book Reader: Color and Video–and Nearly Unbreakable
If you thought the E-Ink screen on your Kindle or Sony Reader was the epitome of high-tech for the printed page, hang on to your hat.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50
The nuvifone’s Linux heritage can be seen in the M50, an Android nuvifone that certainly doesn’t skimp in the navigation department.
Khronos Group Unveils OpenGL 4.0 and 3.3
The Khronos group has released versions 4.0 and 3.3 of the OpenGL spec, the latest version of the cross-platform, royalty-free 2D and 3D graphics API used on all…
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OpenGL 4 spec arrives with Direct3D 11 feature parity
At GDC the Khronos Group announced not one but two new OpenGL specifications. The headline release, OpenGL 4, includes a raft of new features bringing OpenGL in line with Microsoft’s Direct3D specification. OpenGL 3.3 was also released, providing as many of the new version 4 features as possible to older hardware. The Khronos Group, the consortium of hardware and software companies that governs …
Dell Inspiron i580-5108NBC
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Darkworks introduced its TriOviz for Games SDK yesterday during GDC, and while TriOviz technology has been around for years in Hollywood, it wasn’t until today that this same technology debuted for console and PC titles. Essentially, this software wrapper enables standard 2D video games to be viewed in 3D on a traditional 2D display, and we were able to sneak an exclusive look at the technology today at the company’s meeting room. We were shown a European version of Batman: Arkham Asylum on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and we were given a set of specialized glasses (which were passive, like NVIDIA’s active-shutter 3D Vision specs) in order to enjoy the effect. So, how was it? In a word or two, not bad. It obviously wasn’t perfect, but you have to realize just how cheap of a solution this is for the consumer to implement. All that’s required is a set of special glasses, but given that these can be distributed in paper-frames form, you could easily find a set for a couple of bucks (at most), if not bundled in for free with future games. Users won’t need to purchase any additional hardware whatsoever, and what they’ll get is a deeper, more immersive image in return.
We could very clearly see the 3D effect, and even though it was subtle, it definitely enhanced our experience. We noticed a minor bit of blurring and ghosting during just a few scenes, but when you consider that this doesn’t actually change the underlying code in existing 2D games (that’s the cue for developers to breathe a sigh of relief), we didn’t feel that these minor quirks were unreasonable. The other interesting aspect is just how clear the image remained for onlookers that didn’t have 3D glasses on; we noticed slight image doubling at specific points, but it’s not something we simply couldn’t look at without acquiring a headache.
Not entirely dissimilar to the 2008 patent which showed an iPhone being controlled by camera-based input, is this German student’s app, which controls the Maps app being controlled by the camera tracking hand movements through the app. More »
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The roll-out in India of mobile number portability (MNP) is likely to delay beyond a March 31 deadline, because operators have not yet upgraded their infrastructure, the country’s minister of state for communications and IT, Gurudas Kamat, said on Thursday.
MNP will give mobile subscribers the option to retain their mobile numbers even if they change service providers. India had 545 million mobile subscribers at the end of January, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Under guidelines proposed by TRAI, mobile users will be allowed to use the same mobile number even if providers use different mobile technologies like CDMA (code division multiple access) or GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications).
This will be the second time that the roll-out of MNP has been delayed. The service was originally scheduled to be offered in December of last year, starting with four large cities and some key service areas.
Networks in the country have to be ready and tested before the MNP service is implemented, Kamat told the Rajya Sabha, the country’s upper house of Parliament. After operators upgrade and test their networks, India’s Department of Telecommunications has to carry out an acceptance test across all networks in all the service areas, he added.
All the networks in the country are not likely to be completely ready for MNP by March 31, Kamat said.
The introduction of MNP is expected to increase competition in the Indian mobile services market as new entrants try to attract customers from established players. However, after an initial churn, there will not be significant shifts by subscribers from one operator to another, analysts said.
A niche market, yes, but when you reach a certain age and the idea of going on a cycling-and-camping holiday in a foreign country appeals, you’ve got to consider how to transport your bike over. More »
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If you were comforted by the first revieLITE, an iPod charger/nightlight combo from 2008, you’ll be even more thankful for the sequel: the ReviveLite II has a slimmer footprint, an additional USB port and still protects you from night terrors. More »
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Sony barely mentioned pricing with their PlayStation Move motion controller, only noting that the combo pricing with PlayStation Eye and a game will cost less than $100. But by our back-of-the-envelope calculations, the experience is going to be really expensive. More »
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