PC era is far from over, says Lenovo executive

MANILA, Philippines - The advent and fast-paced development of smartphones, laptops and tablets also brought in worries that the personal computer (PC) era is over.

Not so, as growth in PC sales continue to rise, according to an executive of one of the world’s top PC makers and vendors.

In particular, prospects for the PC market in the Philippines are bright, encouraging Lenovo Philippines to perform better and offer more in the PC+ era.

“The PC era is far from over. What we are seeing is a PC+ evolution and not a post-PC revolution,” said Vicky Agorilla, country general manager of Lenovo Philippines.

“With a firm foundation in PCs, we at Lenovo are pushing ourselves even harder to ensure that our leadership in PCs transition into leadership in the PC+ era,” Agorilla said.

The PC+ era is expected to usher in new devices like tablets, smartphones and smart TVs that will offer different experiences and applications.

But Agorilla said “all share the heart of a PC.”

The PC+ era has so far benefited Lenovo.

In the first quarter, the company cornered a global market share of 13.1 percent, making Lenovo the fastest growing PC maker for 10 consecutive quarters, data from industry watcher and research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) showed.

Lenovo has doubled its total annual revenues to roughly $30 billion compared with three years ago.

“We are staying fully committed to the PC space for the long term,” Agorilla said.

“We will continue to redefine the PC through innovation and make the PC even faster, secure and user-friendly,” Agorilla said.

The Philippines’ PC market surged in the first quarter, posting a 25-percent increase in shipping to 544,000 units, data from IDC’s Asia/Pacific PC Tracker showed.

Lenovo’s operations in the Philippines, for its part, is already a major player in Southeast Asia that is home to emerging markets.

Strong economic fundamentals and the rise of new businesses are expected to continuously drive the local PC market.

“In the Philippines, we are one of the top ranking PC technology companies...we also posted very good growth and performance last year,” Agorilla said.

Agorilla said the consumer segment PC line will cater to families of overseas Filipino workers.

Standard features of consumer PC products of Lenovo are multimedia functionality and social networking capability including headsets and web cameras.

“If some of them will venture into businesses, the small and medium business products will very much cater to that,” Agorilla said.

Globally, Lenovo implements the ‘protect and attack’ strategy to boost growth and profitability in all its products and customer segments.

The scheme targets protecting core markets while expanding Lenovo’s reach in emerging markets.

For the Philippines, Agorilla said the commercial space is part of the Protect strategy while the consumer and small businesses segments are under the Attack phase.

“Of course everybody knows how big the population in the Philippines,” Agorilla said, adding that there are about 35 million Filipinos that are ready to acquire PCs.

Increasing local demand will cushion the effects of economic woes in the Eurozone and the US, Agorilla said.

To gain more market share in the country, the PC giant has increased stores selling only Lenovo products while expanding existing retail stores and creating new partnerships with other sellers.

To date, Lenovo has 17 exclusive stores and 400 retail outlets that sell various PC products, which the technology firm targets increasing to 20 and 500, respectively, Agorilla said.

Lenovo Philippines started its local operations in May 2005. It claims to be one of the top five PC firms in the Philippines.

Moving forward, Filipinos can expect more PC innovations that are enjoyed by the developed economies.

For instance, Agorilla said smart TVs that are already available in China can be introduced in the Philippines.

Lenovo Philippines, in collaboration with Open Communication, is already offering Lenovo A65 smartphone.

“We are much committed to delivering innovative products. We have invested to develop innovative products,” Agorilla said.

Early this year, Lenovo Philippines launched the 3rd generation Intel Core processors that is under an exclusive partnership with global technology giant Microsoft Corp.

“It helps our PCs become 40 percent faster than PCs available elsewhere,” Agorilla said adding that“It gives us differentiation.”

Lenovo is also committed to product innovations. The company bagged a record 23 industry awards highlighting PC innovation, design, and versatility during the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas.

Given a wide range of choices, consumers have developed a more sophisticated taste for computer gadgets, wanting every bang for their buck.

This gives Lenovo Philippines the challenge and opportunity to provide better PC products and enhance user experience of Filipinos.

“For customers, we see that these products will enable you to do more than what you are currently doing right now,” Agorilla said.