Lenovo wrestles back top PC spot in Asia

Lenovo has regained its position as the No. 1. PC vendor in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), selling nearly a fifth of the total 9.5 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2005.

According to research firm IDC, the Chinese PC maker was overtaken by rival Hewlett-Packard in the first quarter of this year. But Lenovo managed to bounce back with a 19 percent share of the total market in the second quarter and a 90.9 percent year-on-year growth. HP trails with 12.3 percent market share, followed by Dell at 9 percent.

Bryan Ma, associate director of personal-systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, said Lenovo's strong showing was due partly to its acquisition of IBM's PC business.

"Lenovo also took back its top spot by not only riding on the seasonal recovery in China, but through its newly-acquired IBM's Personal Computing Division, which provided Lenovo with an even more significant lead over second-place HP," he explained.

The overall Asia-Pacific PC market exceeded IDC's initial forecasts with a 7 percent growth over the previous quarter and a 17 percent year-on-year growth. This is due to the better-than-expected performances of countries such as China, Australia and Korea, according to the IDC findings. Singapore, too, beat expectations despite earlier signs of sluggish sales.

"The Singapore PC market fell sequentially in the second quarter as many SMBs (small- and mid-size businesses) had already completed their IT purchases before the start of the new fiscal year in April," said Reuben Tan, Asia-Pacific senior analyst for personal-systems research at IDC.

But the Singapore market still beat expectations, he added, "with tertiary institutions' student purchase programs being the saving grace for the notebook market."