The world's largest PC maker, Lenovo, now sells more smartphones than PCs. In an earnings report issued today, Lenovo revealed the swing to smartphones thanks to sales more than doubling between April and June. Lenovo sold 15.8 million smartphones in the recent quarter, compared to 14.5 million PC sales. Lenovo says its rise in smartphone sales can be attributed to the market shifting from premium handsets to the mainstream, and increasing demand from emerging markets.
Chinese smartphone makers like Lenovo and Huawei have been gradually eating away at Samsung's Galaxy sales thanks to a range of low-cost handsets. That explosive growth looks set to continue with the Motorola acquisition and as the demand from emerging markets increases, even as Samsung attempts to make its mid-range handsets more attractive with a metal design. Although Lenovo's smartphone sales are increasing, the small margins aren't contributing a huge amount to the company's revenues. Smartphones and tablets only made up 15 percent of Lenovo's overall revenue in the recent quarter, compared to a massive 78 percent for its laptop and PC sales. Smartphone shipments might be impressive, but the PC is still incredibly important at Lenovo.