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What's that crunching noise? Lenovo running over rivals' bones

'We can grow no matter the market conditions'

Unstoppable Chinese juggernaut Lenovo hit the gas pedal hard in the final three months of fiscal 2014, resulting in double digit sales and profit hikes for the quarter and the year.

Meanwhile, its rivals continue to run down on empty, as they struggle to find a way to offset declining PC sales with tabs and smartphones that consumers or businesses want.

Lenovo, the world's largest slinger of traditional client boxes, turned over $9.4bn worth of kit sales in the quarter ended 31 March, 2014, up 19 per cent year-on-year.

The bottom line didn't lack springiness either, with net profit bouncing by 25 per cent to $158m.

The Hong Kong-headquartered company doesn't seem to suffering; compared to others, it has a wider mix of products across different geographies and customer segments, meaning it can spread the risks. And, of course, it has a massive installed base in China – the largest consumer of PCs on the planet.

Consolidated laptop shipments were up 12.9 per cent, year on year, in a market that declined 5.8 per cent on average. Turnover for the unit jumped 16 per cent on a year ago to $4.8bn.

The global desktop market dipped 3.1 per cent in the first three months of 2014, slower than before as businesses replaced dusty XP systems, but Lenovo reported unit growth of 6.8 per cent, and revenues of $2.7bn, up 14 per cent.

The Mobile Internet and Digital Home division, which houses smartphones and tabs, posted a sales spike of 71 per cent to $1.3bn. Smartphones shipments grew 59.4 per cent, but the figure for tabs was not broken out.

Some $3.1bn of sales were generated in China where Lenovo pushed up PC market share to 32.6 per cent. Revenues in Asia Pacific sales came in at $1.7bn, jumped 39 per cent in EMEA to $2.6bn, and were up 18 per cent in the Americas to $2bn.

A very modest Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang said in a canned statement that his firm can grow "no matter the market conditions".

He added it had extended the lead in the global PC market, took a greater share in tablets, and "became the fastest growing major smartphone company in the world".

For the year, turnover hit $38.7bn, up 14 per cent on fiscal 2013, and income came in at $817m, up 29 per cent. ®

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