BEIJING,
Nov. 2-- Lenovo Group Ltd reported Thursday a better-than-expected jump of 177
percent in net profit year on year in the third quarter due to the booming
laptop computer business and robust global demand.
Lenovo, which acquired IBM's personal computer
business for 1.25 billion U.S. dollars, said it will switch completely from IBM
to the Lenovo brand, two years ahead of schedule, Lenovo's chief executive
William Amelio revealed.
China's top computer maker, which ranks No. 3
globally, posted a net profit of 105.26 million dollars in its fiscal second
quarter ended on September 30, against 37.89 million dollars a year earlier. The
result beat analysts' average forecast of 88 million dollars.
Revenue totaled 4.4 billion dollars, a 20-percent
growth from a year ago.
Lenovo will continue to penetrate emerging markets
including China, the small and medium firms in developed countries and laptops
in future, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman, said in a statement.
Lenovo generated laptop revenue of 2.5 billion
dollars which accounted for 56 percent of the company's total revenue. The
company's profit margin rose to 15.1 percent in the quarter from 13.0 percent a
year ago.
Among the top five vendors in Asia Pacific, Lenovo,
Dell and Acer gained market share while Hewlett Packard, the global market
leader, lost sales in the quarter, according to IDC, a U.S.-based IT research
firm.
PC sales in the region totaled 16.1 million units in
the third quarter, up 24 percent annually.
Lenovo retained its leadership in the Asia Pacific PC
market with a market share of 21.3 percent, followed by HP, Dell, Acer and
Founder, according to IDC.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
