1. Analysis & Outlook
Blue Ocean Strategy @ Lenovo–Smartphones, Tablets, Smart TV & Emerging Markets
Lenovo is the largest personal computers (PC) maker in the world as ranked by IDC, but global
PC market is a hypercompetitive market with tough competition from competitors like HP,
DELL and Acer. The industry also suffers from low profit margins too where Lenovo’s profit
margin is around 2% only compared to Apple Inc.’s profit margin of 25-30%. Also the PC
market itself is declining as consumers are buying more tablets and smartphones which is
affecting the sales of desktop computers and laptops.All these factors have pushed Lenovo to
adopt the Blue Ocean Strategy and the strategy is called as “PC+ Strategy”, which covers
terminal products like PCs, smart phones, table PCs and smart TVs. Chen Xudong, senior vice
president of Lenovo Group and president for Lenovo China Region, said, “This pressure will
push Lenovo to stretch from the red ocean of PC and sail into the blue ocean of smart TV and
smartphone.” Lenovo has been successfully implementing this strategy as highlighted by June
2013 IDC numbers, Lenovo has a 7% share of the global “smart interconnected device market”
— smartphones, tablets, and PCs and the market is dominated by Samsung with 24% and
Apple14% market share, Lenovo is followed by, HP, with 3.6%.
Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group revived the company withhis Protect &
Attack strategy, formulated after the 2008 crisis. Under Protect & Attack, Lenovo protects its
cash cows markets like China and attack fast-growth emerging with new products. Company
expects double digit growth in Attack businesses and expects faster growth in the protect
categories. Lenovo requires profitability only once a category has reached double-digit share.
With “PC+ Strategy”, Lenovo has shifted its “attack markets” to mobile devices and reorganized
the company to address its “attack markets” head-on. In both tablets and smartphones, the market
is shifting from the premium space to the mainstream and entry-level space and from mature
markets to emerging markets,” Yang told Barron’s in a recent interview. “In mature markets, the
refreshment cycle becomes shorter and faster. This trend favors Lenovo because we are stronger
in mainstream, we are stronger in emerging markets, and our development cycle is much shorter
than our competition’s,” a benefit in mature markets. Yang also said, “We can attack on scale.
We’ll attack on cost efficiency and speed. We can attack these guys from the bottom, and put a
lot of pressure on them from a product portfolio, pricing, time-to-market perspective.”
Lenovo’s smartphones have been among the Top 3 in the Chinese market and in 2012 the
company launched 40 new models of mobile phones and expands its business to overseas
markets. Lenovo introduced the Vibe X, a premium phone and it uses Google’s Android
operating system and constantly upgraded components. Company also recently launched K900, a
“phablet,” in India which is popular in China and expects to launch the same in US market too.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad tablets use Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, while the IdeaPad uses
Android operating system. Lenovo also launched convertible devices like the IdeaPad Yoga, a
tablet and PC amalgamation in China, India, US and other markets. Despite the fact that the
company started focusing on smartphones and tablets since 2010 and only increased its focus in
2011, the company built a capacity of 50 million smartphones and 10 million tablets and its new
Rajesh Prabhakar
Analyst Bio @ http://analysiscasestudy.blogspot.com/

2. Analysis & Outlook
factory in Wuhan has the capacity to turn out 100 million smartphones and tablets a year.
Lenovo’s smart TV ideaTV K91 that was launched in 2012 adopts the voice-control technology.
Lenovo Blue Ocean Strategy focus is dominating the entry level smartphone and tablets market
which does not have much competition as majority of players like Apple, HTC, Samsung are
focusing on the high end premium smartphone market. Lenovo’s Value innovation proposition
for customers is that they can buy smartphones and tablets at lower prices and for company the
profitability increases as the smartphone and tablets have higher profit margins compared to PCs.
The pricing strategy and entry level products will definitely be an advantage for the company in
emerging markets where the growth lies for the company. Lenovo’s success in Chinese market is
also a big advantage for the company as for succeeding in the Chinese market companies should
have deep distribution channels covering the length and breadth of the country and the capability
to launch number of new models of phones every year as consumers frequently upgrade their
phones which shows shorter lifecycle for products.“We launch more new models every month,”
says Yang. “And most of them are manufactured in-house, which gives us a cost advantage and
also a time-to-market and time-to-volume advantage.”
Despite the greater profits and opportunities promised by the blue ocean, Yang Yuanqing
stressed that the PC will always be the backbone of Lenovo. The PC remains the primary
computing device for most people. A recent IDC study showed that individuals spend half of
their time on PCs, versus 30% on smartphones. Lenovo understands this fact and it is also
focusing on PC business and gaining market share in a very flat market for both desktops and
notebooks. Lenovo has spent heavily over the past few years to strengthen its PC business, with
purchases such as Brazilian electronics maker CCE in 2012, Germany's Medion in 2011 and
IBM's PC business in 2005. Lenovo is also offering multi-colored IdeaPad Yoga convertible
ultra-books which have helped build its brand in China and beyond. The global PC market is
expected to week for few more quarters with demand coming from enterprise refresh cycle and
stabilizing demand in the emerging markets will drive normal growth for the company.
Rajesh Prabhakar
Analyst Bio @ http://analysiscasestudy.blogspot.com/