As smartphones are already in most people's hands, the landscape is becoming somehow unpredictable. Smartphones were once the promising market for vendors, but the slowdown of global shipment has affected total sales.
Apple, the smartphone maker from the west has made success by creating the popular iPhone. From the east, Samsung is keeping up the challenge with a series of powerful devices. The Chinese that is always seen as a runner up, is wanting to be a part of the main course.
China is the most powerful when considering the growth of market. Lenovo as the multinational computer manufacturing company, is trying to take advantage of the ever-changing smartphone landscape.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) conference in the U.S. on January 7th, 2015, Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo, in an interview with Sina said that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Lenovo and the ongoing transformation in the global landscape will enable the company to stand out in smartphone business, which leaves an opportunity to challenge Apple and Samsung's dominance.
"The next step for Chinese smartphone markers is to go overseas," he said. "But whether they are able to compete in the global market remains an issue."
Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.9 billion price tag in 2014. The acquisition enables Lenovo to be more advantageous in the competition against other Chinese smartphone makers as Motorola owns a large market share in the U.S.. Furthermore, Motorola is also performing well in other parts of America and India.
Lenovo increased global smartphone shipments by 38 percent in the third quarter of 2014 to 16.9 million units, ranking it fourth worldwide after Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi. Lenovo's market share also expanded to 5.2 percent from the previous 4.7 percent a year earlier.
Both Lenovo's and Motorola's quarterly sales increased in a good way.
"[The deal with Motorola] makes us the most competitive third in the market, and it allows us to challenge the leading two brands," said Yang.
China to Convince the World
Imitation is a form of flattery, but too much is scary. China has long been known to be able to create almost anything they can put their hands on. They can make an exact copy of things that resemble the original piece, and sell it successfully by putting a much lower price. This has made the country to have the most imitation products ever made.
Rip-offs from China are common as they make up more than 70 percent of all imitations on the market. From gadgets to children toys, from buildings, characters, luxury goods, automobiles, and many more. Piracy goes back to the Chinese world because they see individual rights don't matter.
Many Chinese think that buying imitation product is a better choice because it's cheaper. For Chinese companies, they reinforce this perception because they can increase sales margins by replacing genuine with copies instead.
Since piracy is not going anywhere anytime soon, most people conclude that Chinese products are unreliable and incomparable.
The topic has been debated for more than a while. But China is more or less, trying to move away from that perception. Beside counterfeiting, the Chinese industry is moving from just copying and localization into doing their own innovations. And this is what Lenovo is trying to show.
Lenovo that is operating in more than 60 countries, has designed, developed, manufactured and sold personal computers, tablet computers, smartphones, workstations, servers, electronic storage devices, IT management software and smart televisions, in more than 160 countries. It has a good reputation that in 2013, Lenovo was the world's largest personal computer vendor by unit sales.
Lenovo is also Microsoft's ally in fighting piracy using Yang Yuanqing powerful influence in China's technology industry.
With those facts and credibility, Lenovo is certain that it can compete well in the smartphone market.
As the Chinese industry is trying to create something for the better, not just the world that needs convincing. The Chinese public is also eager for an answer. Many people have speculated that Lenovo is basically trying to do some assembling work, putting in a few patents, to put itself ready to face the two powerful smartphone giants from the west and the east.
