China’s Lenovo, now partner of IBM, launches Greek arm
Lenovo, one of the world’s leading Personal Computer (PC) companies that recently obtained the PC branch of IBM, yesterday launched its Greek subsidiary, Lenovo Hellas. Its general director, Apostolos Ladas, said the aim is to mirror its parent company’s domination in this country, too, as Lenovo Hellas intends to expand beyond the IBM clients and into the whole PC market. The conjunction happens to be favorable, as rival domestic assemblers are either unstable, such as Pouliadis, or withdrawing from the market, such as Altec. Last year IBM Greece sold about 30,000 PCs while Lenovo is now third in the world, behind Dell and HP, with $13 billion of revenues in 2004. Lenovo Hellas is desperate to shake the «cheap Chinese maker» label off. Ladas noted that after the company obtained IBM’s PC activities, it has three research and innovation centers in Japan, China and the US. «We are not just computer assemblers,» he emphasized, pointing at the construction of PC parts as well. The company’s activity also extends to items such as printers and cellular phones. In Greece it will supply IBM’s PC products as well as new computer products that were jointly developed. Ladas stressed the company’s comparative advantage is the technological innovation of its products.