國產大發展:聯想繼續發力PC以外市場

For a company operating mostly in a shrinking market, Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, has been growing quickly.

對於一家主要在一個萎縮的市場開展經營的企業而言，全球最大的PC製造商聯想(Lenovo)增長快速。

To accelerate that growth, the Chinese company this month hired actor Ashton Kutcher to help redesign its tablets, hoping that the man who recently played Steve Jobs on screen might help the company’s mobile gadgets catch up with Apple’s.

爲加快增長，這家中國企業本月僱傭了演員艾什頓?庫徹(Ashton Kutcher)，幫助重新設計其平板電腦，以期這位最近在屏幕上扮演史蒂文?喬布斯(Steve Jobs)的人能夠幫助聯想的移動產品追上蘋果(Apple)的產品。

But although its LePads are lagging behind iPads, investors this year have been far more enthusiastic about Lenovo than about the Jobs’s company. Lenovo’s shares are up about 25 per cent, while those of Apple are down 2.3 per cent in the year to date.

儘管聯想的LePad遠遠落後於iPad，但投資者今年對聯想比對喬布斯的公司熱情得多。聯想股價上漲了約25%，而蘋果今年迄今股價跌了2.3%。

To keep investors on side, the company recognises the need to continue its push beyond PCs by expanding a smartphone division now concentrated on China and, potentially, moving into areas such as servers to support rising demand for cloud computing.

爲了吸引投資者，聯想認識到必須繼續在PC領域外拓展，擴張目前專注於中國市場的智能手機部門，並可能進入服務器等領域，以支持對雲存儲日益高漲的需求。

Analysts and some of its competitors say Lenovo is one of the few PC companies that seems able to keep outperforming a slow market. Its investment in product design, access to a massive home market, and strong corporate sales have put it in an unusually strong position atop a PC market whose falling sales – down 9 per cent last quarter – have weakened nearly all its rivals.

分析人士以及聯想的某些競爭對手錶示，聯想是少數幾家似乎能夠繼續跑贏低迷市場的PC企業之一。聯想在產品設計上的投資、本土市場潛力巨大，以及企業銷售強勁，使其在PC市場佔據了不同尋常的強勢姿態。PC市場銷量下滑（上一季度下滑9%）幾乎削弱了聯想的所有對手。

Last quarter, the group reported record high sales and net income of $9.8bn and $220m, respectively.

上一季度，聯想報告稱，銷售額與淨利潤再創新高，分別達98億美元和2.2億美元。

“The toughest challenge next year is from Lenovo,” said Jerry Shen, chief executive of Taiwan’s Asus.

華碩(Asus)首席執行官沈振來(Jerry Shen)說：“明年最嚴峻的挑戰來自聯想。”

Lenovo’s PC sales, which account for three-quarters of overall revenue, have outstripped those of its rivals, outperforming the market by 12 percentage points, according to market data from Gartner.

研究公司高德納(Gartner)的市場數據顯示，聯想的PC銷售額（佔總營收的四分之三）超過競爭對手，比市場高出12個百分點。

Acquisitions, including one in Brazil, and investment in research and marketing have helped it gain share in markets including Europe, although weak economic growth in China, which accounts for 40 per cent of its sales, has dragged down revenues.

收購（包括在巴西的一筆收購）以及投入研發和營銷，幫助聯想贏得了包括歐洲在內的市場份額，不過中國經濟增長疲軟拖累了其營收。中國市場佔聯想銷量的40%。

Its peers are in far weaker positions. Acer, the fourth-largest PC company by sales, last week said that JT?Wang, its long-time chairman and chief executive, would step down following a worsening of the group’s losses. Dell was recently taken private to allow its founders to turn it round. Apple has also had to fend off concerns of slowing sales of the iPhone, although its recent results reassured some doubters.

業內同行的狀況疲弱得多。銷量第四大的PC企業宏碁(Acer)上週表示，長期擔任董事長兼首席執行官的王振堂(JT Wang)將下臺，近期該集團虧損日益嚴重。戴爾(Dell)最近進行了私有化，讓創始人設法扭轉形勢。蘋果也在打消人們對iPhone銷量放緩的擔心，儘管其最近的財報讓某些質疑者安下心來。

One of the companies to beat expectations has been Asus, the PC market’s fifth largest group by sales. It has been boosted in part by new products such as its T100, a $349 Windows device that looks like a notebook but whose screen snaps out to become a tablet.

超出預期的一家公司是PC市場上銷量排名第五的華碩。華碩的T100等新產品在一定程度上提振了業績。T100是一款搭載Windows操作系統的設備，售價349美元，看上去像一款筆記本，但可以把屏幕拆下來當平板電腦用。

“The market now is rewarding engineering innovation,” said Zane Ball, an Intel executive who manages its relationship with the PC companies using its chips.

英特爾(Intel)負責管理英特爾與使用其芯片的PC企業關係的高管贊恩?鮑爾(Zane Ball)表示：“如今市場正在回報工程創新。”

Lenovo benefits from its dominance of China, where it holds a third of the PC market, and its strength in corporate sales, which are on an uptick now as Microsoft updates its Windows operating system.

聯想受益於其在中國的主導地位以及企業銷售方面的優勢。聯想佔據中國三分之一的PC市場。而隨着微軟(Microsoft)更新Windows操作系統，企業銷售也出現起色。

“They use their sales from China and commercial to subsidise all [its businesses in] countries in southeast Asia and Europe, and this kind of strategy other companies just cannot follow,” said Mr Shen.

沈振來表示：“聯想用在中國和麪向企業的銷售來補貼在東南亞和歐洲各國（的業務），其他企業根本無法效仿這種戰略。”

But investors are watching to see if Lenovo can keep expanding its smartphone and tablet business.

但投資者正在觀望聯想能否繼續擴張其智能手機和平板電腦業務。

Lenovo’s smartphone sales jumped 80 per cent last quarter year on year, and its tablet sales jumped more than 400 per cent, bringing the contribution from mobile to 15 per cent of revenue from 8 per cent last year.

聯想智能手機銷量上一季度同比增長80%，平板電腦銷量飆升400%以上，使移動產品佔總營收的比重從去年的8%增長到15%。

However, its smartphone sales are still mostly in China, where it has struggled to gain ground on market leader Samsung, says Nicole Peng, an analyst for market researcher Canalys, and tablet sales total 2.3m, giving it less than 5 per cent of the global market.

不過，市場研究公司Canalys的分析師彭路平(Nicole Peng)指出，聯想智能手機銷量仍主要集中在中國，而在中國市場上聯想迄今難以從市場領頭羊三星(Samsung)奪取份額。聯想平板電腦的總銷量是230萬臺，佔全球市場不到5%。

Acquisitions are an option for accelerating growth in China, said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and chief executive, on a recent call to discuss results.

聯想董事長兼首席執行官楊元慶在最近一次電話會議上討論業績時表示，收購是加快中國區增長的一個選擇。

Lenovo was reported to be interested in buying BlackBerry, but investors think it is more likely to seal long-running talks with IBM to buy its server business, which could be “transformational” in boosting Lenovo’s presence in the growing demand for cloud storage, said Thompson Wu, an analyst for Credit Suisse, in a recent note to clients.

曾有報道稱，聯想有意收購黑莓(BlackBerry)，但投資者認爲聯想更有可能敲定與IBM之間的長期談判，收購IBM的服務器業務。瑞信(Credit Suisse)分析師Thompson Wu在最近發給客戶的簡報中指出，在雲存儲需求日益增長之際，此舉將“革命性”地增強聯想的實力。

Lenovo has declined to comment on what deals could materialise, but, says chief financial officer Wong Waiming: “We are well prepared from a financial perspective as well as from a management capability perspective. We definitely have our eyes open.”

聯想拒絕置評哪筆交易有望做成，但首席財務官黃偉明(Wong Waiming)表示：“不管是從財務的角度還是從管理能力的角度，我們都準備就緒。我們肯定在睜大眼睛（留意機會）。”