More than a year after Lenovo first set up its new Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group (MIDH) to manufacture mobile Internet-focused devices, the Chinese computer giant announced Thursday that it's starting to get the business off the ground.
Depending on whom you listen to, Lenovo is either the world's biggest PC maker (Gartner) or its second biggest (IDC). Correspondingly, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ 0.69%) is also No. 2 or No. 1. But in recent months, Lenovo's gained traction in smartphones and tablets as well. Lenovo "LePhone" smartphones now rank second in smartphone market share in China, behind Samsung. Lenovo also sells a "Yoga" brand laptop that converts into a tablet and runs Microsoft (MSFT -1.27%) Windows 8. And new models of smartphones and tablets are in the offing.
Lenovo sold 7 million smartphones, mostly in China, last quarter. While the business is not yet profitable, Lenovo hopes to make it so as it gains scale, and expands into first developing, and then developed markets internationally.
