Lenovo Trumps Dell, Becomes No. 2 PC Maker

The PC maker earned its runner-up spot in worldwide PC shipments after reaching a record market share of 13.7 percent and a record quarterly shipment volume of approximately 12.6 million units in the third quarter of 2011 – marking an overall and impressive quarterly growth rate of 36 percent since 2010.

Jay Parker, vice president and general manager of Lenovo's North America Consumer and SMB businesses at Lenovo, attributes much of the organization’s success to their channel partners and growth within the SMB market. “For us, this validates a strategy that we employed about two and a half years ago, which was primarily a ‘channel first’ strategy,” Parker told CRN. “Across the world, and specifically here in North America, our goal was to make the channel our primary route to market. We wanted to use the channel to go after the SMB and consumer markets, where Lenovo had had a very small market at the time.”

Parker also sees Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Edge series, which he said is “designed to bring the same ‘Think-brand’ attributes to SMBs, along with specific features more appropriate for smaller customers,” as a driving factor behind their progress.

Lenovo’s channel strategy will remain a focal point moving forward. “Our channel program is simple, consistent, and lucrative,” Parker said. “Every decision we make, we bounce it off of these three criteria. We don’t want our partners to have to be rocket scientists to figure out how to make money with us.”

Dell, the former No. 2 worldwide PC vendor, holds a 12.0 percent market share, with a quarterly shipment volume of approximately 11 million units, according to IDC. These statistics signify a 1.6 percent decrease from 2010. HP, meanwhile, retained its position as the world's largest PC maker.

The announcement of Lenovo’s jump to the number two spot follows on the heels of Michael Dell’s keynote address at Dell World. During the keynote, Dell stressed the organization’s dedication to the PC market and said he’s “not concerned” about losing the spot to Lenovo, a company he said he respects as a competitor.

If one measures market share in number of PCs sold, then Lenovo could be number two, Dell said. "If you measure it in terms of revenue and profit, no," he added. Dell is more focused on profit and high-value solutions for customers, and less on selling hardware, he said.

Parker told CRN that, despite the excitement of reaching the number two slot, Lenovo isn’t stopping here. “We’re happy about it, but it’s not where we want to stop or where our vision ends," he said. "Our vision is to be the number-one PC provider in the world.”