Forget Apple.
While most people seem to be distracted by the shiny things coming out of Cupertino, they fail to see the successes of Lenovo, they of the dowdy-but-ironclad ThinkPad and a startling array of consumer PCs.
The company's fourth quarter numbers are in, and it's a doozy:
Call it the quiet giant. (Though that may be a misnomer, considering the loud finishes it uses on its IdeaPad consumer laptops.)
The company didn't break out the numbers specific to its consumer, SMB and enterprise product groups -- too bad, as I would love to know whether the ThinkPad is retaining its appeal in the BYOD-friendly enterprise -- but it did reveal how it's doing on a geographic basis via new reporting business units based on global regions.
Bright spots:
And lest you think the desktop is dead, consider that Lenovo shipped 43 percent more of them worldwide in Q4, compared to the same time last year.
The big question for the company is what's next. As it "protects and attacks" (yes, that's its strategic mandate) the PC market across the globe, the company must concern itself with further diversifying its product portfolio. The company says much about what it calls the "PC plus" era -- you know, the one with smartphones, tablets, Internet-connected TVs, and so forth -- but right now it's only dominating the PC part.
To that end, Lenovo says its smartphone business in China posted market share gains of 8.2 percentage points -- it's the number four provider there -- and its tablet business grew to 17.2 percent market share, making it the number two provider there and the fourth largest in the world. Impressive numbers to be sure, but the company is a homegrown favorite and it remains to be seen whether it can replicate that success elsewhere.
Photo: Lenovo's ThinkPad T430u, its new "business ultrabook."