Lenovo to become top smartphone vendor in China, says Gartner

Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Thursday 22 November 2012]

Market research firm Gartner has published its IT predictions for China in 2013 and beyond. The predictions include Lenovo becoming the top smartphone vendor in China.

Known well as a PC brand, Lenovo has seen its mobile phone business gain real momentum in China, Gartner said. Lenovo grabbed a 14.8% share of the China smartphone market in the third quarter of 2012, compared to only 1.7% during the same period a year ago, Gartner observed. Lenovo was ranked second in the China smartphone market in the most recent quarter, trailing only Samsung Electronics with 16.7%, and beating Apple's 6.9%, Gartner said.

Lenovo is the only local smartphone player capable of competing with global brands in China, thanks to "its household brand recognition, nationwide distribution, strong portfolio and reasonable pricing," Gartner indicated. "The brand is positioned at the mid-to-lower end which will drive much of its future growth, and this is where global brands are less competitive," Gartner said.

Lenovo is expected to achieve the top smartphone position in China in 2013, Gartner believes.

In other news, MediaTek, which supplies handset chips to Lenovo and other local firms in China, has enjoyed a boost in smartphone-IC shipments. MediaTek expects to ship more than 40 million smartphone chips in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 35-40 million in the third quarter.