This morning the folks over at Reuters pointed to an upcoming shift in the global PC market that most industry watchers have been expecting for some time now, saying that Chinese manufacturer Lenovo (HKG:0992) is expected to soon surpass Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ) as the biggest PC maker in terms of shipments.
Earlier this year we noted that according to IDC figures, Lenovo is already shipping the most PCs in the Asia region by a large margin. While Lenovo (with 14.9 percent market share) sits just behind global leader HP (15.5 percent) it’s interesting to take a look back and see how it got there. I’ve isolated the two companies in the interactive chart below so you can get a better picture. As you can see, the most recent quarter has seen Lenovo and HP converge, with Lenovo poised to overtake them in the next quarter.
[Download image version of this chart]
Reuters points out that Lenovo’s joint venture with Japanese manufacturer NEC (January 2011) as well as its acquisition of German consumer electronics maker Medion (June 2011) has helped its progress. But the report also notes that Lenovo’s profit margins at 1.4 percent are lower than HP and Dell (7.4 and 6.2 percent respectively) for the most recent quarter.
It’s also important to note that Lenovo announced earlier this month that it would be investing $30 million into a manufacturing and distribution center in Brazil. And progress in that large market will certainly help Lenovo in the PC wars since Brazil was the world’s third largest PC market in 2011.
Disclosure: As per our ethics policy, I should note that I’m a former HP employee.
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