Lenovo shifts main focus to mid-market and retail

Consumers and the mid-market will be a priority for Lenovo over the next year, according to the PC
vendor’s incoming UK vice president Chris Wells.
Although only in the job for 13 weeks, Wells spoke exclusively to CRN about the vendor’s plans for next year, claiming that by the spring, Lenovo will have unveiled its first raft of consumer products.
“We will bring in the specific consumer-targeted products next year as part of our evolution of growth through our product set and emerging markets such as consumer, mid-market and the public sector. We are already rolling it out in France and South Africa and are timetabled for a UK launch next Easter,” said Wells.
Wells admitted that the vendor had previously only focused on the higher-end customers and resellers.
“Part of my role will be to articulate our total cost of ownership
benefits to resellers and end users in the mid-market.
“I want to leverage what we have; we have the IBM heritage and 1,700 global engineers working on our products, which are sometimes the best-kept secrets. I want to work with the channel to get the message out there about our products.”
Wells declined to comment on rival Acer’s proposal to acquire Gateway or on Gateway’s rights for first refusal on buying Packard Bell, and the impact that may have on Lenovo’s own deal with Packard
Bell. However, he said: “Lenovo has signed a memorandum of understanding with a third party associated with Packard Bell, which was all signed before the Acer deal was announced.”
David Gould, commercial director of DSGi business, told CRN: “It makes sense for Lenovo to push down the pyramid and sell into the mid-market and consumer space.
“It will, however, have to build its
scale and market share to ensure
it can become an efficient leader in the consumer space, but the consumer space is too big for Lenovo not to address.”
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