Reports: Lenovo, NEC Discussing Joint PC Venture
According to a report from Reuters Lenovo and may launch a joint venture in PCs with NEC, the leading manufacturer in Japan's PC market.
Although it is unclear exactly what a partnership between the NEC and Chinese Lenovo would entail, NEC might allow Lenovo to become a diversified computer hardware maker. NEC's broad range of hardware product offerings includes thin clients, servers, supercomputers, projectors, monitors and point-of-sale systems.
Teaming up with NEC could help Lenovo expand in Japan. In addition, an alliance or joint venture with Lenovo would give NEC an opportunity to be a global player once again in the PC business; while NEC is a strong brand in Japan, the company is no longer a major worldwide PC manufacturer.
According to Nikkel Business Daily, a deal with Lenovo is not expected to prevent current NEC systems from coming to market as scheduled. However, it would add to the recent trend of Chinese companies venturing into the Japanese market as well as Lenovo's ambitious global PC strategy. Nikkel reports that, in the event of a deal, Lenovo is likely to invest in developing NEC's technology while seeking to expand its market share in Japan. Lenovo could not be reached for comment.
According to Gartner, Lenovo has the fourth-largest share of the global PC market with 10.1 percent, behind Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Acer. In 2010, Lenovo recorded the largest growth among OEMs worldwide, shipping an estimated 21.1 percent more units in the fourth quarter of 2010 than it sold in Q4'10 according to IDC.
Lenovo acquired IBM's PC group in 2004 and, with it, the ThinkPad PC product family -- the most recent member of which, the ThinkPad x120e notebook, launched earlier this month at CES 2011.
On Thursday, Lenovo promoted Peter Hortensius, the former head of its Think Product roup to President of the company's overall Product Group -- underscoring the importance of the ThinkPad line and the notebook segment in general to Lenovo's global strategy.