China’s Lenovo plans to revive smartphone business with supply chain revamp, increased marketing push

Chinese technology giant Lenovo Group expects to put its slumping smartphone business back on the growth path with a revamped manufacturing supply chain and a major global marketing push this year.

The two initiatives were disclosed by Lenovo chief operating officer Gianfranco Lanci and chief marketing officer David Roman in separate interviews with the South China Morning Post.

These efforts appear to have taken more urgency for Lenovo amid forecast slower global sales for the smartphone industry from this year.

Worldwide smartphone sales are predicted to grow 7 per cent to reach a total of 1.5 billion units this year, cooling from 14.4 per cent growth last year and a record-high 73 per cent increase in 2010, according to research firm Gartner.

Nomura analyst Huang Leping said in a report that Lenovo reached a peak scale of about US$12 billion in smartphone sales and 6.4 per cent global market share in the 12 months ended March 31 last year, aided by the company’s US$2.91 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google in October 2014.

But intense competition in mainland China and other large markets prompted Lenovo to restructure its mobile phone business in the third quarter last year, which included a US$300-million write-off of its smartphone inventory.