How Lenovo is winning the world

Territory by territory, product by product, Lenovo is growing sales and market share. Here is a detailed breakdown of how it is winning over the world.

Geographic overview

* Lenovo China improved its fourth quarter operating margin by 0.8% to 5%. With US$3.1 billion in consolidated sales in the fourth fiscal quarter, China accounted for 33% of the Company’s worldwide sales. Lenovo protected its PC leadership with 32.6% share, with PC margins improving 1.1% with stabilizing shipments and increased average sales price. China continues to invest in the push into Smart Connected Devices to capture opportunities from 4G and Smart TVs.

* In the Asia Pacific region, Lenovo achieved 15.6% PC market share in the fourth fiscal quarter, up 2.1% year-over-year. While the regional PC market improved, only down slightly at 1.5% year-over-year, the Company grew its PC shipments across the region by 14%. Lenovo remained number one in Japan with tremendous shipment growth of 35%. Consolidated sales across the region totaled US$1.7 billion or 19% of Lenovo’s worldwide sales, while operating margins went up 1.3% to 2.7%.

* Lenovo in Europe, Middle East & Africa grew PC shipments during the fourth quarter by 33.3% and building even stronger momentum across the region. EMEA achieved a 15.8% market share, increasing shipments 4% year-over-year or a nearly 34 point premium to the market. The region had consolidated sales in the fourth quarter of US$2.6 billion, a year-over-year improvement of 39%, good for 27% of Lenovo’s total worldwide sales. Operating profit margin was healthy at 2.9%, 1.0 point increase year-over-year.

* Lenovo’s PC shipments in the Americas in the fourth fiscal quarter increased 18% year-over-year, in a market that fell by about 8%. In this environment, the Company gained 2.5 share% to a record high market share of 11.4%. Consolidated sales grew 23% year-over-year to approximately US$2 billion in the fourth quarter, driven by strong growth across all products. This represented 21% of Lenovo’s total worldwide sales. In the US, during the fourth quarter, Lenovo surpassed Apple in PC units, while achieving the number 3 position for the first time in this critical market with record share at 10.8%. The Company continued to invest in its fast growing Brazil and Latin America businesses.

Product overview

* Consolidated sales for Lenovo’s laptop PC business worldwide in the fourth fiscal quarter increased 16% year-over-year to US$4.8 billion, accounting for 51% of the Company’s overall sales. During the same period, Lenovo’s worldwide laptop PC shipments increased 12.9%, against the backdrop of an overall industry decrease of 5.8%. In the fourth fiscal quarter, Lenovo announced its newest version of the popular ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the world’s lightest 14-inch ultrabook. Forged from the same strong but light stock as aircraft and racing cars, the X1 Carbon’s carbon fiber casing weighs less than magnesium or aluminum, but is stronger than both. The Company also announced the ThinkPad 11e series of laptops, designed specifically for education and ruggedized for K-12 classroom performance.

* During the fourth fiscal quarter, Lenovo’s desktop PC shipment grew 6.8% worldwide year-over-year, against an industry decline of 3.1% worldwide. Lenovo’s desktop PC consolidated sales for the same period increased 14% to US$2.7 billion, or 29% of the Company’s overall sales worldwide. In the fourth fiscal quarter, Lenovo announced the C560 all-in-one (AIO) desktop PC, a family-friendly large-screen, multitouch home PC that doubles down on work and play, as well as the ThinkVision Pro2840m, a feature-packed, 28-inch, 4K professional resolution display and the ThinkVision 28, a smart display that is not only an ultra-high definition monitor but is also an Android-enabled entertainment center.

* Lenovo had solid shipments of smartphones, staying China’s number two smartphone maker, with rapid growth across all its Mobile Internet and Digital Home (MIDH) product lines. During the fourth fiscal quarter, consolidated sales of MIDH rose 71% to US$1.3 billion year over year, or 13% of the Company’s overall sales. The Company’s worldwide smartphone shipments grew 59.4% in the fourth quarter, outpacing the worldwide market by 28%. The Company also outgrew the market in China as it worked to capture 4G/LTE opportunities by expanding its own Lenovo App store ecosystem. So far the store has delivered 6 billion downloads. It is averaging 25 million downloads daily. Lenovo’s own SHAREit App won the Mobile World Congress award for best app and was the first app developed by Lenovo to reach 100 million users.

* In the fourth fiscal quarter, Lenovo introduced several smartphones, including its first LTE smartphone, the Lenovo Vibe Z, a razor-thin, blazing fast device equipped with gesture controls, photo enhancement software and other premium technologies. The Company also announced the new Yoga Tablet 10-inch HD+, a multimode device that infuses Lenovo’s original Yoga tablet with a full HD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, sharp high-resolution camera and its incredible battery life of up to approximately 18 hours under certain conditions.

Read about Lenovo’s growth in market share across PCs, smartphones and tablets here.

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