Dubai: Lenovo, the world’s second largest computer manufacturer, is set to enter the highly competitive smartphone market by summer.
“We will be launching around five models in a phased manner this year in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We are right now defining partners and the price points,” Oliver Ebel, Executive Director and General Manager for Lenovo Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
The Chinese company will be launching models in the low-end, mid-range and high-end price segments. It will launch its premium smartphone running on Intel’s Atom processor with a super-slim profile — K900 — at a later stage.
“We are focusing on Android operating system right now but we are open to Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. The screen sizes range from 4-inch to 5.5-inches and most of the devices come with dual SIM card options,” Ebel said.
He said all phones are the same. “How we are going to differentiate is by the price. Lenovo’s strategy is to deliver features, performance and offer good value proposition for customers.”
“We are not going to do much customisation of the user interface like others do for launches,” he said.
According to research firm Canalys, the UAE is expected to sell 6.75 million smartphones while Saudi Arabia is expected to sell 13.94 million this year. By 2016, the UAE is expected sell 10.4 million with Saudi Arabia selling 28.29 million units.
He said there is a lot of room for growth in the smartphone segment.
“Right now Samsung and Apple are the top two players but there is no clear third player. What we can do very much is like what we did in China. We can leverage our strength in China,” he said.
Overtake Samsung
Lenovo is the number two in China with 19.5 million units sold in fourth quarter of last year behind Samsung. Samsung controls 17.7 per cent while Lenovo holds 13.2 per cent of the Chinese market last year.
According to industry experts, Lenovo is going to overtake Samsung to become the top smartphone seller in China this year.
“We have the brand equity and as consumers are shifting more to portable mobile devices like smartphones and tablets amid a challenging computer market, our focus will be on these devices. But that does not mean we will neglect our computer segment,” he said.
“We will be holding talks with regional telecom operators, but the UAE market is driven by retailers and not like in Africa where the market is driven by telco operators. Our smartphones are sold in some African countries by Vodafone,” he said.
Smartphone-tablet hybrid, also known as phablet, is the latest trend in the smartphone industry. “We are also looking at six-inch smartphones. With the right product line-up, we have the confidence and drive the PC plus era forward,” Ebel said.
