Lenovo EMEA defies credit crunch

Flying in the face of international and domestic credit crunches and inflationary pressures, Lenovo says it is experiencing continued strong growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market.

Addressing a Paris-based Web cast this week, Milko van Duijl, Lenovo EMEA president and Lenovo Group senior vice-president, said the company was still bullish on emerging markets.

He said, while oil prices were rising, the dollar was weakening; inflation was rising, and interest rates were rising; “this has been going on for a number of quarters”.

“Contrary to what you expect, our business continues to grow and the IDC continues to increase its growth expectations.”

Karine Paoli, associate VP for personal computing in EMEA at the IDC, says the research house expects the PC market in EMEA to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11.9% to end on 158 612 481 units in 2012.

She says growth in the EMEA PC market will be driven by higher uptake of ultra low-cost notebooks, higher consumer notebook adoption and the rising adoption of mobile broadband.

Van Duijl said “the PC is here to stay – it has forced its way into our lives and that of our families and of travelers”.

He says we may well see PC lives being extended due to tough economic conditions, but emerging markets especially still offer so much opportunity that growth opportunities are far from being exhausted.

“The demand is still strong, particularly in the SME (small and medium enterprise) market.”

With regards to SA, Van Duijl said it is an important market within EMEA where the company wants to keep growing. However, it is no longer considered to be an emerging market, but rather a mature one with good consumer and SME markets.

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