LENOVO, the world's No. 4 PC maker, expects its operating profit margin to trend upwards, helped by easing component shortages and an appreciating Chinese currency, its chief financial officer said yesterday.

"With an appreciating yuan and falling component prices, obviously managing such a business will be easier than having to deal with a depreciating yuan and rising component prices," CFO Wong Wai-ming said at the Reuters China Investment Summit in Beijing.

He declined to give a forecast.

Lenovo's operating profit margin, a key performance indicator in the PC sector, rose to 1.9 percent in the July-September quarter of this year, up from 1.58 percent in the preceding quarter.

Separately, Wong said the company will launch its LePad tablet PC in China within the next few weeks and is planning to have a smartphone that will run on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G network, as it moves beyond its traditional PC base.

The company already produces smartphones for use in 3G networks run by China's two smaller operators, but has yet to make one for China Mobile, which controls more than two-thirds of the world's biggest mobile market.

"We obviously plan to have a product for each operator," he said.