After finalising its takeover of IBM`s personal computing (PC) division last week, Lenovo says it has aggressive plans to take the lead in the South African market.
Lenovo says it will go after Dell and HP customers as it continues to peddle the Think range of PCs as well as other existing Lenovo branded products.
The $10 billion company, which previously concentrated on the consumer market, has now cemented a place in the enterprise space.
Lenovo is the number one PC vendor in China and the Asian Pacific region and with the acquisition has inherited IBM`s number three position on the global PC vendor rankings. IBM still has a 13% interest in the company.
The company`s regional GM for UK, Ireland, Netherlands and SA, Gareth Hansford said during a visit to SA last week that because IBM`s Think Pad and Think Centre products have been coming off the same production line as Lenovo products for many years, there will be no compromise on quality.
"We will simply continue what we have been doing for a long time; the only thing that will change over time is the branding from IBM to Lenovo."
He added that on the back of what he calls a smooth transition, Lenovo will not change anything in relation to existing contracts with what used to be IBM`s channel and other business partners.
"Lenovo will still be a part of the Partner World Programme for some time, the conditions will remain the same as they were under IBM, but we do have plans to make it more dynamic in future.
"We now feel that we have a chance to address a broader market; IBM took its PC business to a certain point, but Lenovo`s expertise on the consumer side will see a lot more consumer devices like PDAs, printers and cellular phones entering the South African market," says Rashid Wally, Lenovo SA country GM.
He adds that the company will also go through some strategy changes and could look "like a very different company" a year from now, from both a product and services side.
Meanwhile, Lenovo has signed a five-year alliance agreement with IBM and will be the sole PC product, service and warranty provider for the company.
"We will stick with the Think branding on the PC and notebook products, but we may bring in additional brands at a later stage," says Wally.
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