Pandu, a 25-year-old mobile phone salesman at Oke Shop in a mall in central Jakarta, has noticed a change in his customers’ tastes. Indonesian consumers who used to prefer BlackBerry (BBRY) or Samsung Electronics (005930:KS) devices have started asking for products made by Lenovo (992:HK). The world’s No. 1 PC maker is expanding into smartphones, and Indonesia is one of its most important targets. “We can get Lenovo smartphones with almost the same specifications as the Samsung brand for almost half price,” says Pandu, who like many Indonesians has one name.
Keeping salesmen like Pandu busy is an important part of Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing’s plan to transform the Chinese PC maker into a credible rival to Apple (AAPL) and Samsung. Lenovo is the world’s No. 4 smartphone brand, according to data released by market research firm IDC on Jan. 27. Its market share for the fourth quarter of 2013 was 4.9 percent, up from 4.1 percent in the same period in 2012. That’s tiny compared with Samsung’s 28.8 percent and Apple’s 17.9 percent, but Lenovo’s shipments jumped almost 50 percent for the quarter. It could make further strides:Google (GOOG) announced on Jan. 29 that it’s agreed to sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for about $3 billion.
Since Jan. 23, after announcing plans to pay $2.3 billion for IBM’s (IBM) x86 server business, Lenovo’s Hong Kong-listed stock price has jumped 6 percent and hit its highest level in more than 13 years. The company’s stock price has surged 53 percent in the past six months, beating Apple’s 10 percent rise and a flat performance by Samsung.
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