Lenovo’s PC Crown: Tough to Defend 联想个人电脑皇冠：强力捍卫
The headlines today are filled with reports trumpeting Lenovo’s official ascension to the top of the global PC rankings, as the company officially passed longtime champion Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to become the world leading computer seller. So now the next question is: What’s does it mean? Unfortunately, the answer could be “Not much,” as PCs get set to embark on a long-term decline that will ultimate see them go the same way as record players and VCRs as they get replaced by more nimble mobile devices. Over the shorter term, Lenovo will also have to show it has the power to stay at the top before it can claim true bragging rights as the world’s biggest PC seller — a challenge that could be tough for reasons I’ll explain shortly.
But before I start with my skepticism, I’d like to officially congratulate Lenovo for achieving a feat that few would have considered possible just 7 years ago, when the company first stepped onto the global stage with its landmark purchase of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) PC-making assets. Since then Lenovo has been mostly on an upward trajectory, though it did experience a setback about 2 years after the IBM deal as it underwent a painful restructuring due to integration issues with its new global business.
The company has been talking for much of this year about how it expects to overtake longtime PC champion HP as the world’s top computer seller, and now its prediction has finally come to pass. According to newly released data from Gartner, Lenovo sold 15.7 percent of the world’s PCs in the third quarter, officially passing HP which clocked in at 15.5 percent. (English article)
The achievement was slightly compromised by competing data from IDC, the world’s other major PC sales tracker, which said that HP retained its leading spot in the third quarter with 15.9 percent market share, followed by Lenovo at 15.7 percent. But regardless of that fact, Lenovo’s steady rise means it’s probably only a matter of time before it overtakes HP in both surveys, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Chinese company take the top spot for both IDC and Gartner in the fourth quarter.
But let’s look beyond this major milestone and examine what’s next for Lenovo, both from a shorter term and a longer term perspective. The company is likely to maintain its top spot for at least the next 2-3 quarters, as both HP and former superstar Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) grapple for direction in the rapidly changing global PC market. But Lenovo itself could soon be grappling with its own integration issues as well, following a recent string of major acquisitions in Japan, Germany and Brazil. Those acquisitions were a major element in helping Lenovo to take the top spot, much the way the IBM deal instantly doubled Lenovo’s global market share at the time. As those integration issues start to surface, look for Lenovo’s market share to plateau and even start to slip a bit.
From the longer term perspective, Lenovo could also soon face the challenge of being the king of a product category set to become obsolete in the next 5-10 years, as traditional PCs get overtaken by a more nimble generation of mobile devices like smartphones and tablet PCs. Lenovo has entered both the smartphone and tablet PC areas, but so far is just a bit player as it has yet to show it can produce popular products for either.
All that said, Lenovo should enjoy its day in the sun as the world’s PC champ, as it has certainly worked hard and long to earn the distinction. But it shouldn’t rest on its laurels for too long, as it will face many difficult challenges defending its title and keeping its products relevant in the years ahead.
Bottom line: Lenovo will face short- and long-term challenges in maintaining its PC crown due to integration issue related to recent acquisitions and the rapid rise of mobile devices.
Related postings 相关文章:
