Lenovo to leverage SMEs

Lenovo, the world's fourth largest computer maker, is eyeing the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment to gain a stronger foothold in the local computer and hardware market, reports The Star online.

The China-based company that started operations in Malaysia four years ago is now, as part of its growth strategy, paying greater attention to this segment while maintaining its corporate and consumer businesses.

Lenovo country GM for commercial business, Khoo Hung Chuan, says the company was strongly focusing on SMEs as this market was growing fast and was the backbone of the country's economy.

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) came to the market with a new line of Opteron chips, shortly following the release of the six-core Opteron processor codenamed “Istanbul,” reports Softpedia.

John Fruehe, director of business development for server and workstation products at AMD, says the new silicon solution comes under the codename 'Suzuka' and hits the market as a quad-core processor developed for single-socket systems.

Suzuka doesn't seem to come to the shelves as a breathtaking product, yet it is intended to fulfil the needs of the cost-effective SME market.

Cisco Systems in Malaysia plans to expand its SME market and aims for 20% revenue contribution from the segment next year, according to The Star online.

The expansion is part of Cisco's $100-million investment in the SME sector globally in the next three years.

Cisco Asia marketing senior director, Lauren Ventura, says the group's global strategy is to provide solutions in specific segments in SMEs.