Lenovo Notebooks Put In Q3 2012 Star Showing As Desktops Struggle

Lenovo saw notebook sales rise but desktop PC struggled in Q4 2012, the company has revealed today, with the shipments of portables up 9.5-percent year-on-year while sales of their desk-bound brethren managed a mere 1-percent rise. The Chinese PC company saw sales of $9.4bn over the three month period, shipping 14.1m PCs for pre-tax revenue of $246m. It also saw a profit from its Chinese smartphone division, the first time that's been recorded.

Lenovo ended the quarter – as of December 31 2012 – with 15.9-percent of the PC market share worldwide, and was the fastest growing "major PC company." Profit was up 15-percent year-on-year, to $1.1bn, while the contribution from smartphones, tablets, and smart TV rose 77-percent year-on-year.

However, it's not all good news. Lenovo's desktop PC business showed signs of the malaise across the industry, sales only climbing 1-percent, though shipments were up 5.8-percent worldwide. Lenovo is keen to point out that the PC industry as a whole saw a 6.8-percent decrease in shipments overall.

Lenovo now claims 12.3-percent of the Chinese smartphone market, while its smartphone, tablet, and smart TV group made $998m – 11-percent of the total quarterly sales. But it's notebooks which are the real winners, with 15.8-percent market share and contributing over half of Lenovo's total sales revenue. Sales in fact rose 8-percent year-on-year, to $4.8bn.