China’s Lenovo Group (聯想), the world’s biggest PC maker, has set an aggressive target for its tablet market share in Taiwan, backed by its wider product offerings across all price ranges.
The company aims to go from close to zero at the moment to a “double-digit” market share in the first quarter of next year, driven in part by its Yoga Tablet series, which was released yesterday, said Justin Liang (梁百鋒), general manager of Lenovo’s Taiwan branch.
The top-end Yoga tablets are expected to account for up to 40 percent of Lenovo’s tablet sales in Taiwan in the first quarter of next year, but the bulk will come from the company’s mid-range to low-end products, Liang said.
“We are very committed to our tablet sales in Taiwan,” he told reporters at a product launch for the Yoga series, which starts at NT$7,990 for an 8-inch model and NT$9,990 for a 10-inch model.
Lenovo changed its tablet sales strategy in Taiwan three months ago, when it began selling its 7-inch A1000 tablet via a local carrier, and is seeking more telecom partners to expand the availability of its tablets, Liang said.
However, the Chinese PC brand accounted for less than 2 percent of Taiwan’s overall tablet shipments in the third quarter, ranking seventh among the country’s tablet vendors, according to data from the tech-tracking firm International Data Corp (IDC).
If Lenovo achieves its target of at least a 10 percent market share in Taiwan, it will break into the country’s top three spots for tablet vendors, which were held by Samsung Electronics Co, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Apple Inc in the third quarter, IDC said.
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