The National - News

LENOVO CHIEF INSISTS SECURITY IS PARAMOUNT AMID SPYWARE CLAIMS

▶ US allegation­s strongly refuted as PC manufactur­er posts 14% increase in revenue for the second quarter

- ALKESH SHARMA

Lenovo, the world’s largest manufactur­er of personal computers, has spruced up its security framework following reports related to US allegation­s of the Chinese government’s attempts to spy through microchips installed in devices used in data centres.

“That issue was related to Super Micro, which has never been Lenovo’s supplier … security is our priority and we have always paid utmost attention to it,” Yang Yuanqing, chairman and chief executive of Lenovo, told The National.

Super Micro is a Chinese motherboar­d and storage manufactur­er that assembled the machines used in data centres operated by Amazon and Apple. Apple and Amazon have denied a report that listening devices were included in their data centres.

“Lenovo is a trusted supplier not just in China but in Europe and North America and that reportage [of alleged spy systems] has not impacted our business,” said Mr Yuanqing.

“However, we have taken further steps to review our entire process of product developmen­t to make sure our product is safe. We have built a global image of a trustworth­y partner and it is intact.”

Lenovo, also Chinese, posted revenue of $13.4 billion in Q2 ending September 30, up 14 per cent year-on-year.

For the third consecutiv­e quarter, Lenovo achieved double-digit year-on-year revenue growth and this quarter’s revenue was the highest quarterly result in nearly four years.

As far as the ongoing trade friction between the US and China, Mr Yuanqing said no one will come out a winner.

“Globalisat­ion has benefited all people globally. Manufactur­ing cost was low in China, so goods were sold cheap in the US and worldwide. In the beginning, there could be some conflicts because we [the US and China] don’t understand each other.

“But we should learn what’s the difference and then try to adapt to the difference … compromise with the difference. We respect each other, that’s why we saw a very successful integratio­n during IBM deal.”

Lenovo had successful­ly taken over IBM’s PC business in New York for nearly $1.75bn in 2005.

Currently, Lenovo has the largest global market share in the PC industry at 23.7 per cent, according to the Internatio­nal Data Corporatio­n. It is followed by HP and Dell at 22.8 and 17 per cent market share, respective­ly.

Lenovo, which is mainly a device company, is now shifting its focus on to the service industry.

“The services business is Lenovo’s future,” said Mr Yuanqing. “That’s why in the last quarter, for the first time, we reported our service revenue reaching close to $700 million. Although it accounted for only 5 to 6 per cent of our total business, it’s a good start.”

In the third quarter, Lenovo’s PCs and smart devices business surpassed the $10bn revenue mark for the first time – up 18 per cent year-on-year. The company has invested nearly $1.5bn on research and developmen­t in the past fiscal year.

“Percentage-wise [of total revenues], R&D investment is not very high but it is a traditiona­l PC industry norm. However, with our new businesses like data centres coming up, we will increase our R&D investment share,” said Mr Yuanqing.

“In the past couple of years, we have invested more on AI [artificial intelligen­ce] and smart technologi­es. Our future focus areas include smart IoT [Internet of Things], smart infrastruc­ture and smart manufactur­ing.”

Instead of expanding in all markets, Lenovo is focusing on capitalisi­ng on its best-performing ones in Latin America, North America, western Europe, India and China.

“Two years ago, we tried building higher scales and expanding into more markets but that strategy failed,” Mr Yuanqing said. “We learnt from that experience.”

“Therefore our focus is on selective markets that have shown good growth in last few quarters. But this is the first step and if we manage to maintain the momentum in next quarters then we will adopt an aggressive expansion approach in other markets.”

Refuting the industry rumours that PCs’ very existence is threatened, Mr Yuanqing said the industry is here to stay.

“The PC market is stable and growing both volume-wise and revenue-wise.

“It’s a $200bn industry. But we need to make this industry smarter and connected and that is our job to do.”

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