Smartphone Market Will Continue To Grow - GM, Lenovo Africa

The General Manager, Lenovo Africa, Graham Braum in an interview with BrandArena, expained how Lenovo have continued to grow in Africa and why the company choose to penetrate the Nigeria market with the launch of seven smartphone model in Lagos.

Graham Braum, Lenovo Africa GM

How can you describe the performance of Lenovo since its penetration to the African market?

Lenovo Africa has taken a calculated 'Protect and Attack' approach on expansion into Africa. Having built a strong business model in South Africa which falls under our 'Protect' strategy, we have started the journey of focused expansion - or 'Attack' - country by country in SADC, East and West Africa. Besides PC we have begun rolling out our tablet portfolio across Africa, and today we unveil Nigeria as the first country to launch Lenovo SmartPhones in Africa.

Lenovo has already driven strong double digit market share across the whole of Africa and have already moved to being the number 2 PC vendor in Nigeria according to IDC Q42013.

In the last quarter, according to IDC, Lenovo has achieved record PC market shares globally of 18.6% and we are the number 1 PC vendor in the world. This together with a focused plan of expansion into smart connected devices, we are excited about the future globally and within Africa.

Is there any reason(s) for Lenovo move to Nigeria market?

Lenovo's global strategy is 'Protect and Attack' which sees us protecting our core strengths - such as China and global commercial PCs - while simultaneously attacking new high-growth opportunities - such as emerging, global consumer and mobile markets.



We launched smartphones first in China couple of years ago and we gradually attacked new markets, such as Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and now Africa.

The Nigerian smartphone market is significantly large and there's room for new players and healthy competition.

What makes Lenovo different from other mobile phone brands?

We are launching a 7-smartphone portfolio in Nigeria that caters to every style, personality and pocket. The Full HD Vibe X for example, sports a 5MP front camera, the highest in the market today, as well as a 13MP rear camera. In addition, the Vibe X's smart UI comes with Lenovo's new DOit series of apps that let you and your device do more. Share photos, apps, video and other data with any compatible device, off network, with SHAREit. Protect your phone from viruses, spam and malware with SECUREit. Backup or restore your contacts, message data and call logs with SYNCit. Enjoy multiple photo shooting modes with SNAPit and you can edit and organize your photos with SEEit.

Lenovo's other models launched today all come with dual sim, large screens (4" to 6") and offer great value for money within the Affordable, Stylish and Vibe series or products.

Lastly, what should Nigerians expect from Lenovo?

Lenovo continues to expand and invest in Africa. Nigeria is a very strategic market for Lenovo and we continue to invest in channel and resources. We continue to invest in new partners to expand our reach and invest in resources as a further commitment to our customers and partners.

Nigeria is key growth market for Lenovo and has one of the highest mobile subscribers in the world. The smartphone market is expected to grow substantially over the next few years. Given that 58% of mobile subscribers access the web via their mobiles in Nigeria, Lenovo's smartphones with their large screens are the perfect fit for browsing, social media and multimedia.

Over and above Smartphones the population of Nigeria will continue to see innovations in all of our PC and PC+ categories in 2014.