Lenovo today announced it is creating a new company in hopes of building its smart devices and services business in China.
The new company, which will operate under a separate name and brand, will start up April 1, 2015. Chen Xudong, who is currently president of China and Asia Pacific markets at Lenovo, will serve as CEO of the new company.
Lenovo hopes the new company will help it compete in China’s consumer mobile device market while also working in software, application development and customer engagement.
In the next few months Lenovo plans to announce details about the new company’s business strategy and product plans.
IDC has been tracking fairly steady smartphone share growth for Lenovo over the past few years. The analyst group reported a record quarter for Lenovo in China in 2Q and saw the company’s smartphone share outside of China triple during the same period. Lenovo is currently the fourth largest global smartphone OEM behind Samsung, Apple and Huawei.
Established smartphone players like Samsung have been feeling pressure in China from local vendors like Xiaomi, which overtook Samsung’s market lead in the second quarter. Lenovo, Samsung and Yulong all registered 12 percent of the market, trailing Xiaomi’s 14 percent.
Lenovo will be busy on the mobile front for the remainder of the year. Chief Strategy Officer Zhou Qingtong said he’s confident his company can this year close its nearly $3 billion acquisition of Google’s Motorola Mobility business.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
