国产大发展:联想继续发力PC以外市场

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

对于一家主要在一个萎缩的市场开展经营的企业而言，全球最大的PC制造商联想(Lenovo)增长快速。

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.

为加快增长，这家中国企业本月雇佣了演员艾什顿?库彻(Ashton Kutcher)，帮助重新设计其平板电脑，以期这位最近在屏幕上扮演史蒂文?乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的人能够帮助联想的移动产品追上苹果(Apple)的产品。

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.

尽管联想的LePad远远落后于iPad，但投资者今年对联想比对乔布斯的公司热情得多。联想股价上涨了约25%，而苹果今年迄今股价跌了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.

为了吸引投资者，联想认识到必须继续在PC领域外拓展，扩张目前专注于中国市场的智能手机部门，并可能进入服务器等领域，以支持对云存储日益高涨的需求。

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.

分析人士以及联想的某些竞争对手表示，联想是少数几家似乎能够继续跑赢低迷市场的PC企业之一。联想在产品设计上的投资、本土市场潜力巨大，以及企业销售强劲，使其在PC市场占据了不同寻常的强势姿态。PC市场销量下滑（上一季度下滑9%）几乎削弱了联想的所有对手。

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

上一季度，联想报告称，销售额与净利润再创新高，分别达98亿美元和2.2亿美元。

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

华硕(Asus)首席执行官沈振来(Jerry Shen)说：“明年最严峻的挑战来自联想。”

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.

研究公司高德纳(Gartner)的市场数据显示，联想的PC销售额（占总营收的四分之三）超过竞争对手，比市场高出12个百分点。

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.

收购（包括在巴西的一笔收购）以及投入研发和营销，帮助联想赢得了包括欧洲在内的市场份额，不过中国经济增长疲软拖累了其营收。中国市场占联想销量的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.

业内同行的状况疲弱得多。销量第四大的PC企业宏碁(Acer)上周表示，长期担任董事长兼首席执行官的王振堂(JT Wang)将下台，近期该集团亏损日益严重。戴尔(Dell)最近进行了私有化，让创始人设法扭转形势。苹果也在打消人们对iPhone销量放缓的担心，尽管其最近的财报让某些质疑者安下心来。

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.

超出预期的一家公司是PC市场上销量排名第五的华硕。华硕的T100等新产品在一定程度上提振了业绩。T100是一款搭载Windows操作系统的设备，售价349美元，看上去像一款笔记本，但可以把屏幕拆下来当平板电脑用。

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

英特尔(Intel)负责管理英特尔与使用其芯片的PC企业关系的高管赞恩?鲍尔(Zane Ball)表示：“如今市场正在回报工程创新。”

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.

联想受益于其在中国的主导地位以及企业销售方面的优势。联想占据中国三分之一的PC市场。而随着微软(Microsoft)更新Windows操作系统，企业销售也出现起色。

“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.

沈振来表示：“联想用在中国和面向企业的销售来补贴在东南亚和欧洲各国（的业务），其他企业根本无法效仿这种战略。”

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

但投资者正在观望联想能否继续扩张其智能手机和平板电脑业务。

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.

联想智能手机销量上一季度同比增长80%，平板电脑销量飙升400%以上，使移动产品占总营收的比重从去年的8%增长到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.

不过，市场研究公司Canalys的分析师彭路平(Nicole Peng)指出，联想智能手机销量仍主要集中在中国，而在中国市场上联想迄今难以从市场领头羊三星(Samsung)夺取份额。联想平板电脑的总销量是230万台，占全球市场不到5%。

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

联想董事长兼首席执行官杨元庆在最近一次电话会议上讨论业绩时表示，收购是加快中国区增长的一个选择。

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.

曾有报道称，联想有意收购黑莓(BlackBerry)，但投资者认为联想更有可能敲定与IBM之间的长期谈判，收购IBM的服务器业务。瑞信(Credit Suisse)分析师Thompson Wu在最近发给客户的简报中指出，在云存储需求日益增长之际，此举将“革命性”地增强联想的实力。

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.”

联想拒绝置评哪笔交易有望做成，但首席财务官黄伟明(Wong Waiming)表示：“不管是从财务的角度还是从管理能力的角度，我们都准备就绪。我们肯定在睁大眼睛（留意机会）。”