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A Chinese customer looks over smartphones at Lenovo's flagship store in Beijing as the company reported record global shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014. Photo: Bloomberg

Lenovo ships record global shipment of 16 million units in 4th quarter of 2014

"We are confident that we will continue to gain share as the industry consolidates and reach our goal this fiscal year of 20 per cent (market) share"

Lenovo

Lenovo capped a strong year as the world’s largest supplier of personal computers with a record global shipment of 16 million units in the fourth quarter, boosted by solid demand in the United States and its Europe-Middle East-Africa geographic market.

The quarter also saw better-than-expected total shipments for the personal computer industry even as it marked the third consecutive year of market volume decline, according to separate preliminary estimates released early today by technology research firms IDC and Gartner.

Lenovo spokeswoman Angela Lee confirmed to the South China Morning Post that 2014 was the second consecutive full year in which the company led industry shipments.

"We are confident that we will continue to gain share as the industry consolidates and reach our goal this fiscal year of 20 per cent share," Lee said

Lenovo attributed its overall buoyant sales to the variety of products being offered, including all-in-one desktop machines and hybrid laptop-tablet designs.

“Consumers today want devices as that are as unique as they are,” said Tom Shell, vice-president at Lenovo’s product group. “That’s why we’ve expanded our range of devices across all platforms – laptops, desktops and tablets.”

IDC calculated global personal computer shipments in the three months to December decreased moderately by 2.4 per cent to 80.8 million units, down from 82.8 million a year earlier.

“The strength from market leaders, as well as improvement in the Asia-Pacific and the consumer market more generally, are positive signs for the PC market,” said Loren Loverde, a vice-president at IDC’s Worldwide PC Tracker research team.

Gartner, however, estimated a 1 per cent increase in shipments to 83.7 million units last quarter, up from 82.9 million the previous year.

“Now that tablets have mostly penetrated some key markets, consumer spending is slowly shifting back to PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner.

Lenovo, which has dual headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, achieved record shipments of 16 million units on the two research firms’ estimates. IDC saw Lenovo with a 4.9 per cent year-on-year growth, while Gartner had a 7.5 per cent improvement.

IDC said Lenovo’s 19.9 per cent global market share edged top rivals Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Apple, which all posted higher shipments in the same quarter.

Gartner had Lenovo with a 19.4 per cent global share and Asus as the world’s fifth-largest personal computer supplier. But it also pointed out that Lenovo’s shipments declined in Japan and markets in South America.

Second-ranked HP managed to narrow the gap with Lenovo last quarter, after posting the best year-on-year growth among the world’s top-five computer suppliers. IDC estimated a 15.1 per cent growth, while Gartner saw HP advance by 16 per cent.

Global personal computer shipments last year totaled 308.6 million units, with Lenovo accounting for 59.2 million, according to IDC. Gartner showed a higher worldwide estimate of 315.9 million, with Lenovo’s contribution at 59.4 million.

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