Lenovo Is Number One in Consumer and Business Segment in Croatia

Lenovo Is Number One in Consumer and Business Segment in Croatia
Dražen Tomić - Tomich Productions

Lenovo is a number one PC vendor in three countries in our region according to Igor Sarić, Director for Consumer and SMB South East Europe. He points out that these 3 countries are Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. Sarić told ICTbusiness.biz that in Croatia they have a strong brand with a market share of 34.1%.

Lenovo continues growth. Can you share what’s the situation with sales figures on our and on the regional markets?

Lenovo continues to deliver high record business performance for the last quarter, signaling a strong sustainable long-term business. In South East Europe (SEE) we recorded a solid performance in Q3 with 25.5% market share, driven by right strategy and persistent execution. We are holding the #1 position in 3 countries- Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.

We see a steady growth of the commercial business segment, led by our Think product portfolio, but also in consumer, driven by our Yoga, Legion and IdeaPad brands. In Consumer business, in SEE we're holding the number 1 position, with 23.3 % market share. Specifically, in Croatia, we have a strong brand, with a market share of 34.1%. Our steady growth maintains our strong position in Consumer with 31.2% market share and in Commercial with 36.5%, holding the number one position in both segments in Croatia, according to IDC.

Our business strategy Intelligent Transformation shows strong momentum as a long-term growth catalyst for the Group outside of core business areas. Despite global economic challenges, Lenovo is not only delivering strong results today, but has the core competencies to face any challenges that may arise in the future.

New products have been announced at CES Las Vegas, and unfortunately MWC was cancelled. What are your expectations of this year and what do you expect from new products?

At CES Las Vegas we've launched our new products which encompass innovation, usability and some features that are trendy now or will become shortly. Take the example of the first 5G PC or the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the first fully functional PC with folding OLED display. Even though MWC was cancelled, we will continue to announce our new product portfolio. Recently, we have announced the latest additions to the ThinkPad portfolio: the new T series, X series and L series, that are leveraging the core tenets of design, innovation and quality. With our large product portfolio, both for Consumer or Commercial users, we’re aiming to provide a broad customer choice and a smarter workforce experience. Our company is offering consumers around the world, through its large product portfolio, modern IT solutions with emerging technology features to meet the needs and desires of end users.

What are the key products and segments where growth opportunities exist?

We see an increased demand for our consumer product lines. 5 years ago, we have launched the world’s premiere in terms of mobility: The Yoga brand, the first flexible PC in the world, with hinges inspired by the watch wristband. Ever since, the Yoga design and features have been improved.

We see a growth segment in Gaming, where we are continuing to grow the gaming segment with our Legion brand. As a matter of fact, globally and locally we're expanding our partnerships with different eSports teams and programs. In Croatia, we've partner for the consecutive year with Reboot Fair, we're more than 80.000 people attended last year in November. We're committed to provide high-performance equipment for top-tier competitive gaming experiences. In connection with our Legion brand, we see a growing opportunity in gaming accessories. A gaming experience is not completed without accessories: from monitors to mouse pads and headphones.

New generations of processors, memory, drives are coming, AI is being introduced into world of devices, from PC-s, tablets to smartphones. These are major changes that may not be visible to users at first glance, where does Lenovo see opportunities for further growth and development?

Intelligent Transformation is our strategy for the last quarters and will continue to be soon. As part of our promise to enhance people’s lives at home and at work, we designed and developed hardware, firmware and software to achieve an improved experience. For example the T and X series from our legendary ThinkPads are engineered with (dual) microphones for 360 degrees reception and 4 meter far-field performance. This brings value for our customers, as it offers an improved user experience with VOIP conferencing performance for improved productivity, particularly when multiple participants are speaking in the same room. So does the Wake Faster feature (which is a Modern Standby). It represents an optimized user experience with more phone-like, always on, always connected behavior.

In a world where privacy is on everyone's lips, we developed on our ThinkPads a feature called ThinkPad Privacy Alert, which is a unique software feature that will wan users if anyone is looking at their screens. This allows an extra layer of security by automatically warning users if anyone is looking at their screen. ThinkPad Smart Display is an innovative feature that blurs any display the user is not actively looking at, which offers a true advantage to a ThinkPad user to work in public and keep anyone seated near them from peering at their sensitive documents and stealing critical information.

Apart from this, AI is going to revolutionize healthcare systems. Lenovo is working on projects about how AI enhances diagnostics, clinical infrastructure and preventative care. All that powerful transformation serves as a tool for both patients and providers- and that trend will continue over the next decade.

How much can the events such as coronavirus affect the market?

First, I would like to express my deepest sympathy feelings for those affected by the novel coronavirus. This situation is extremely dynamic. In our case, we are leveraging our core competency in managing global supply chains and the full strength of our 30+ factories around the world to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus situation. Our component suppliers and our transportation providers are facing similar challenges to us, so as a result we are seeing overall supply chain network capacity impacted in the short term. But we are working tirelessly to minimize the potential customer impact.