Lenovo's third quarter profit grew 88 percent

Lenovo's profit for the third quarter nearly doubled year on year as the company continued its fast-paced growth, beating Dell to become the world's second-largest PC vendor.

For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Lenovo reported profit of US$144 million, up 88 percent from the $77 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue in the quarter was $7.78 billion, an increase of 35 percent year on year.

Lenovo's PC market share in the quarter reached 13.5 percent, surpassing Dell, according to research firm Gartner. In the second quarter, Lenovo took the third spot, ahead of Acer.

Despite global PC sales slumping due to weak spending and rising demand for tablets, Lenovo has continued to post double-digit growth in shipments for the last quarters, making it the fastest-growing PC vendor among the top five companies.

Lenovo has credited this to protecting its home turf in China, which in the second quarter exceeded the U.S. in PC shipments and sales. Lenovo leads in China with a 31.5 percent market share, according to the company.

Lenovo has also been targeting emerging markets. Lenovo's Russian and Indian business have reported fast growth, with their market share growing in both nations by more than 3 percentage points for the last quarter.

In mature markets including the U.S., consumer spending has been weak, said Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing during a conference call on Wednesday. "But in emerging markets including China, we believe it will continue to keep double digit year on year growth," he said. "We are very confident we will continue to outgrow the market."

Along with PCs, Lenovo has also been seeking a larger share of the tablet and smartphone market. In the last quarter, Lenovo's smartphone shipments grew by 335 percent year over year, much of the growth driven by the company's LePhone A60 handset sold in China. Lenovo has also risen to become the second-largest tablet vendor in China, with an 8.4 percent market share, according to the company.

Lenovo plans to create tablets and smartphones for the high, middle and low-end markets in China, Yang said. Lenovo sold 160,000 tablets in China in the last quarter, almost double sales in the previous quarter, he said.

Lenovo also announced on Wednesday that its chairman, Liu Chuanzhi, will step down from. Liu, the founder of Lenovo, will focus on his work with the company's parent Legend Holdings, which invests in different industries.

computerword.com.au