Lenovo India now sells more smartphones than PCs

Smartphone sales have overtaken personal computers and laptops business of Lenovo in India. With Rs 8,075-crore sales, smartphone business is driving Lenovo's revenue by high double digits, according to CyberMedia Research.

Lenovo (India), which grabbed the third spot in smartphone sales from home-grown Intex in the December quarter last year, currently holds 11.6 per cent market share. While the Chinese company is also topping the chart when it comes to PC and laptop sales in India, a surge in smartphone sales last year helped it achieve such a feat, say experts.

"Smartphone business is very important part of our portfolio now. It is already bigger than PC sales by volume," Sudhin Mathur, director, mobile business group, Lenovo (India), said.
 

According to Anshul Gupta, research director, Gartner Inc, Lenovo holds about 22 per cent share in the domestic PC market. Its share in the PC space was 18.1 per cent during the June quarter last year. However, size of the PC market in India (10 million units annually) is less than a 10th of the smartphones market, which touched 103.6 million units in 2015. "In 2015, Lenovo came up with new models and has become relevant in the highly competitive Indian smartphone market," Gupta said.

The rise of Lenovo in the smartphone space, from less than five per cent market share in 2014 to 11.6 per cent in December 2015, got reflected in its revenue as well. While Lenovo India posted Rs 5,667 crore revenue in 2014-15, in calendar year 2015 its revenue - from smartphones business alone - is estimated to cross Rs 8,000 crore. Lenovo chief executive Yuangqing Yang had set a target of becoming one of the top 20 companies in India with annual revenue of Rs 40,000 crore by 2018.

Indian smartphone market, fastest growing in the world, has changed revenue mix for major players who were originally known for other electronic products. Samsung India currently generates 70 per cent of its Rs 40,000 crore-plus revenue from mobile handsets business.

Last month, Lenovo reshuffled its mobile business under two brands - Lenovo Vibe and Moto - catering to affordable price segment and premium segment, respectively. The move was aimed at consolidating Lenovo's portfolio for better product management and positioning. While the share of smartphone sales (in terms of volume) from Vibe and Moto is 60 and 40 per cent respectively, both the brands generate equal revenues now," Mathur said.

Lenovo has launched four smartphones since January. "And given the shorter lifespan a new model now has, we will be launching handsets frequently this year," Mathur added.