Lenovo eyes number two slot for PCs

Chairman says current pace of growth will help it fly past Dell in last few months of 2011

Lenovo expects to speed past Dell and grab the second spot in the global PC rankings by the end of the year.

Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of the China-based vendor, predicted Lenovo would snatch the silver-medal position (behind HP) in the last few months of 2011 based on its current growth pace.

He also sought to underline Lenovo's commitment to the PC space in the wake of HP's bombshell announcement that it could spin off or sell its Personal Systems Group.

"PCs continue to be a very strong core business for us," Chuanzhi said. "Even as we invest in new areas such as tablets and mobile internet, we see great opportunity in PCs around the world. We are committed to the PC space for the long term and expect it to continue to fuel profitable, balanced global growth for Lenovo."

The PC rankings were dominated by HP, Dell and Acer last year, but Lenovo has suddenly made headway, leaping into third place on 12 per cent marketshare in Q2, according to Gartner.

Over the past nine quarters, Lenovo claims to have grown eight times faster than the overall PC market, at 23.1 per cent.

"With our own rapid growth, combined with the successful execution of our joint venture in Japan with NEC and our acquisition of Medion in Germany, we fully expect to be number two in worldwide PCs this year," Chuanzhi added.