Lenovo has reported that strong PC and smartphone shipments led to it recording a 25% increase in profits during its fourth quarter.
The Chinese company’s smartphone shipments grew 59.4% during the quarter to top 50 million devices, with the company also delivering 9.2 million tablets, to mark the fourth quarter in a row when the company sold more mobile devices than PCs
The company is now eying to sell 100 million smartphones and tablets in the coming year.
Lenovo outpaced HP last year to become the world’s largest PC manufacturer in terms of volume and now trying to strengthen its smartphone business as it looks to alternative sources for growth.
The company is now the second biggest smartphone vendor in China, with its Mobile Internet and Digital Home (MIDH) product business recording a 71% growth in sales over the past year to earn $1.3bn, contributing 13% of the company’s overall sales.In January, the company announced it would be acquiring Google’s Motorola Mobility’s smartphone business for $2.91bn in order to strenghten its position in this market.
Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said, "Not only did we strengthen our leading position in the PC market, but we gained three points in tablets by quadrupling sales volume and became the fastest growing major smartphone company in the world."
During its first quarter the company was the fourth-largest smartphone maker with a market share of 4.6% and it was slightly behind China based Huawei Technologies which had a market share of 4.9%, according to figures from IDC.
Lenovo chief financial officer Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg, "We definitely know that the conventional PC business is not going to continue driving our profitability."
