Lenovo branching out into IT management services
Lenovo Inc, the world’s largest computer maker, is tapping into professional IT management service as it struggles to offset the decline in overall computer sales.
“We expect the new professional IT management service to help double our overall IT after-sales service revenue in central Asia-Pacific in 2018,” said Ivan Cheung, executive director and regional general manager for Central Asia Pacific at Lenovo.
Target customers are companies that need to outsource their personal computing devices and desk management services.
Lenovo plans to roll out its professional IT management service in Thailand by September this year, after recently introducing the service in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Mr Cheung said the move is part of Lenovo’s policy to transform from a productcentric company to a service-centric one.
He also said the corporate computer market still has room to grow thanks to increased computer replacement demand this year.
In the sluggish economic environment, Mr Cheung said consumers were replacing computers every 5-10 years on average, compared with 4-5 years previously.
“Thailand is our third largest personal computer market in central Asia-Pacific, apart from Indonesia and South Korea,” said Mr Cheung.
Lenovo plans to give a facelift to 800 shops in AsiaPacific to accommodate the demand for gaming computers and accessories.
Mr Cheung said Thailand is one of the biggest gaming PC markets, with 60,000 units sold in 2016. Gaming PC sales in Thailand and Taiwan combined account for 70% of total gaming PC sales in the AsiaPacific region. Worldwide market for the gaming computer industry was worth US$36 billion (1.25 trillion baht) in 2016.
Globally, Lenovo spends around $1.5 billion on research and development every year, focusing on the development of products for the future by deploying technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence to improve computing systems.