Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) has seen rapid growth in China’s smartphone market and aims at raising its share in the high-end market by cooperating with Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科), a Taipei-based research firm said recently.
DRAMeXchange Technology Inc, a research arm of advisory firm TrendForce (集邦科技), said in a report on Thursday that Lenovo led all Chinese smartphone makers in terms of shipments in the third quarter of this year.
Altogether, Chinese smartphone makers shipped about 60 million units in the July-to-September period, an increase of 8 percent from the second quarter.
Lenovo, which entered the smartphone sector only in the second quarter of this year, led all local vendors with 9 million units shipped, followed by Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) 8.5 million units and ZTE Corp’s (中興) 7.5 million units, the report said.
In comparison to other PC makers that have turned to the smartphone market, Lenovo has a stronger pricing strategy and established sales channels, the report said.
EXPANSION
By meeting demand from various consumer groups, Lenovo is strengthening its market share and brand acceptance in the run-up to the company’s attempt to expand through strategies such as adding higher-priced models to its lineup and offering its products internationally, the report added.
As part of an attempt to strengthen its presence in the high-end market and expand to the global market, next year Lenovo may introduce new quad-core and dual-core chips, developed in cooperation with MediaTek, the report said.
The computer maker appears to be determined not to miss the boat on smartphones as the market is growing fast and has a lot of potential.
Lenovo and other Chinese companies are becoming a key part of the smartphone industry. Morgan Stanley forecast in July that China’s smartphone shipments will likely hit the range of between 150 million to 170 million units this year, thanks to rapid upgrades of feature phones.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese companies are also trying to stay ahead in this competitive industry by offering special features to their phones.
Last month, Taiwanese computer maker Acer Inc (宏碁) launched its first smartphone supporting its own personal cloud service in Taiwan as part of efforts to boost its smartphone sales next year. Carrying a price tag of NT$14,900 (US$510) in Taiwan, the cloud service-enabled S500 will go on sale in other Asian countries later this year, the company said.
HYBRID
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) also launched its second-generation hybrid smartphone last month. The 4.7 inch Padfone 2 can be combined with a 10.1 inch tablet to provide the integrated functions of a mobile phone and a tablet computer.
Asustek said the Padfone lineup is seen as a “restart point” for its smartphone business and the company is dedicated to making its products more user-friendly.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS