Mutterings: Lenovo's mystery mobe-market overturn chum is NEC
PC whale aims to swamp Apple, Samsung rowboats with aid of Japanese harpoon
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Market rumours have suggested that Lenovo’s secret joint venture partner for a shiny new smartphone could be NEC.
Lenovo told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today that it was in “preliminary negotiations” with an unnamed company for a “potential joint venture transaction” after reports circulated that the company was in talks to build a new smartphone.
Although the Chinese firm didn’t confirm what that venture would be, sources whispered to Reuters that the project was a new smartphone with Japanese firm NEC.
They also confided that NEC had been chatting to Lenovo since early this year about a potential sale of its mobile unit or a tie-up with the Chinese firm.
The firms had already partnered up in the PC business before that market started faltering. Now that Lenovo is shifting over to fondleslabs and mobes, it looks like it could be willing to take its old partner with it.
While Lenovo is near the top of the PC market along with HP, the latest figures show that it's a diminishing one, as mobile becomes the new norm. ®
