Lenovo sees PCs giving way to personalised computing

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Dubai: Lenovo’s regional head believes the future of personal computer is just starting. The PC industry is in the middle of transformation and there is tremendous amount of opportunities out there.

Marc Godin, vice-president and general manager for Lenovo Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News in his first regional media interview, that the PC is giving way to personalised computing.

The PC market is slowing down but regardless of that, he said that the convertibles, tablets and two-in-one categories are growing fast amid slowdown in standard laptops and desktops.

“We created the convertible segment with Yoga but we are under watch to understand what the future usage models are that needs to be addressed, and may require new form factors,” he said.

PC is not a “stable industry” anymore and there is a lot of change happening. Many form factors are appearing and many form factors are disappearing. Lenovo is the world’s largest PC manufacturer and holds 20.7 per cent market share in 2015 despite a 10 per cent fall in year-on-year shipments.

Godin said that Lenovo’s ambition is to grab 30 per cent market share regionally and globally. There is a consolidation and further consolidation happening in the industry, so given the momentum and the strength of our company, “we should have a legitimate ambition of reaching 30 per cent.”

“Our strategy is to attack gaming PC and ultra-slim market and, at the same time, explore smart office and home office solutions. Shifting consumer needs are driving the PC and smart device industry transformation. For PC to go farther, we must be customer centric. Customers want choice on product and they want choice on experience and they want is personalised,” he said.

Lenovo has launched “Y Series” gaming laptops in the market and will be launched a 17-inch gaming laptops.

The Chinese company is set to begin manufacturing enterprise products for Europe, Middle East and Africa customers in Europe — including x86 servers, and the full range of storage and networking products for the data centre environment to lower delivery time and operation costs.

“Air freighting a server is not cheap, so there is a fine balance to be found. May be there is a higher cost of manufacturing in Europe but definitely there is a lower cost of transportation,” he said.

Production will begin in Summer 2016 and will complement the existing Flex production of the ThinkServer product line as well as a number of other products.

The Flex facility in Hungary has been a strategic partner to Lenovo for six years and is already involved in the production of a range of products, including PCs, mobile phones, ThinkServers and tablet repairs.

He said the success of the company is the combination of adding the right strategy and the right execution.

“We operate in a rich and diversified environment,” he said.

Lenovo, which has moved down the smartphone rankings globally and giving way to Oppo and Vivo, is getting back into the aggressive mode with Google’s Project Tango.

“We are the launch partner for Google’s Tango technology and is coming in the next few weeks. You will see how Lenovo is truly breaking again in smartphone innovation. You will see the Tango technology in smartphones and tablets,” Godin said.

Lenovo will be bringing its second annual #LenovoTechWorld to San Francisco on June 9th.

Project Tango brings augmented reality to your smartphone, including gaming, navigation, and other utilities. This device gives you a totally new way to experience the world — enabling you to do things never imagined, from indoor mapping your way around a museum to creating a 3D gaming environment to visualising how a new refrigerator fits into your kitchen.

Lenovo will also share a glimpse of some of the most interesting technology concepts from our labs around the world. These concepts represent the creativity, experimentation and imagination of hundreds of Lenovo and Motorola engineers, designers, and developers across three continents.

Lenovo is also expected to launch some new Moto models — X and G.

When asked whether its dual-brand strategy of Lenovo and Motorola is working, he said that it is a bit too early to talk about.

Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google in 2014 for $2.91 billion.

He said that many parts of the world we are just launching the Moto brand. The UAE is one of the few countries where both the brands are available. We want to have a different proposition.

“We want to leverage the two different brands in two different price segments. Moto will be addressing mid- to high-end segments while the Lenovo brand (Vibe) will be addressing entry to mid-range segments,” he said.

“Our team has done an aggressive job and we are placed number two, after Samsung in the smartphone space and ahead of Apple, in the UAE. What we need to do is focus on China where other home-grown brands have performed better,” he said.

The region continues to be a “critical part” of EMEA in terms of growth ambitions and the opportunity it presents.

By Naushad K. Cherrayil Staff Reporter