For the first time ever, the sales of Apple in the greater china region have surpassed those of Lenovo, which is the third largest PC manufacturer in the world in terms of shipment volumes, according to the results confirmed by both the companies. The fastest growing manufacturer of personal computers for the seventh straight quarter, Lenovo, announced this Thursday that its sales in China have gone up by 23.4% as compared to a year ago, to reach a total of $2.8 billion. This allowed it to cement its position as the leader of the PC market in China, according to the company’s Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing.
However, this wasn’t enough for Lenovo to keep its lead on Apple, as the great demand for the iPads, iPhones and the Mac computers manufactured by the Cupertino, California based company boosted up its sales in the second quarter in the greater China region, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, by around six times to $3.8 billion.
Lenovo considers its sales in the Taiwan and Hong Kong region different from the mainland China, and terms these markets as emerging, which have seen a very strong growth during the last quarter. However, if Lenovo had to catch up with the revenue for Apple in greater China, analysts believe that it would have to increase sales by $1 billion at least.
A leader of one of the prominent research firms in China, Jenny Lai, said that the sales of Lenovo products in the above mentioned markets are very unlikely to even get close to the $1 billion mark which it needs to surpass Apple. However, Mr. Yang also said that the comparison was unfair as the calculation of revenue for Apple also includes the phone business, whereas Lenovo focuses mainly on the PC business as their presence in the phone market isn’t very strong in the country.
According to the research firm IDC, Lenovo’s market shares increased across all regions during the last quarter as it went above Acer to take the overall third spot in the global PC market. Mr. Yang said that the company aspires to increase its share in the market and to continue to grow beyond its rivals. The company was very successful in North America as well, as its shipments went up to 30.8% compared to last year, even as the market went down by 6%.