Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing sat down for a short interview with WSJ to discuss his company, different markets and the possible purchase of BlackBerry. In the interview, the CEO reveals some good figures on the mobile sector and explains how Lenovo will continue to dominate and make revenue in the PC sector.
First, starting with the PC sector, Yang discusses how even though overall shipments fell, as it has year on year, Lenovo is continuing to make revenue by making more premium devices for a market that still wants fast and powerful personal computers.
The move into the mobile market has been straightforward for Lenovo, the problem has been emerging into other markets. Right now their smartphone business is routed in China, although we have heard about a Lenovo Android and Windows Phone coming with high-end specs this year.
Yang made a surprise statement saying profits are actually higher in the mobile sector than they are in the PC sector, but due to advertising and pushing the brand to other countries, Lenovo has yet to accumulate any true net profit from the mobile industry.
This is set to change though, with Lenovo tablets starting to crop up on Windows 8 and Android. Yang did not comment on Windows RT in the interview, but we expect he feels the same way about it as most manufacturers do, that is to say, not a future platform at the moment.
Regarding BlackBerry, the CEO said he could not confirm any moves or deals, unlike some Lenovo executives who have previously said they would love to acquire BlackBerry into the fold. He did say if it worked with the strategy set out by Lenovo regarding the phone space, they would certainly look into an acquisition.
BlackBerry is a good bet for Lenovo, even if they have to dismantle BB10, they have an incredible hardware team and software team to build skins for Android and applications for both Android and Windows 8/Phone.