You might not think it, but Lenovo has quickly become a big player in the mobile space. Even though they’re leading the pack where traditional PCs and Laptops are concerned – no mean feat these days – they sell more mobile devices than they do computers. Which speaks volumes for the number one PC seller these days. Lenovo recently completed their purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google, and it’s quite clear that the company is looking ahead to dominate the mobile space. Their smartphone sales have become very, very strong in China and Asia as a whole, however they are beginning to struggle against the rise of Xiaomi and recent success of Huawei. To keep the mobile operations going smoothly, Lenovo’s Mobile Division is going through something of a change, as mobile head Liu Jun is to step down.
According to a report by NASDAQ, Jun will continue working at Lenovo as “a special consultant to Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing” while Chen Xudong will take his place as head of mobile as well as Motorola’s new Chairman. Xudong has experience in running the Lenovo’s ShenQi smartphone brand, a spinoff from their main offerings in China. As NASDAQ has noted, in the space of a year, Lenovo’s share of the smartphone market in China has declined by roughly 2%, which doesn’t sound like much, but left with little compelling competition Xiaomi could practically dominate the Chinese market. During the first quarter of 2015, combined with Motorola’s share, Lenovo was the third largest smartphone business in the world, not bad for a company we know for creating the Thinkpad.
Having Xudong replace Jun while also set up a leadership position at Motorola could help to bring the two brands closer together. We saw Motorola finally launch the new Moto lineup in China earlier this year, and hopefully the reverse will be true with Lenovo products launching in North America to offer even more competition to the likes of Samsung and co. Over time, we should see more of Lenovo in the smartphone market, and we’re all hoping that they don’t tinker too much with the Motorola brand that many have fallen for.