Lenovo sees mobile as a money maker

Lenovo's Android-powered smartphone, 

bound for China, signals the entrance of yet 

another computer manufacturer into the 

smartphone game (joining the likes of Acer and

Dell). However, it's unclear just how far 

Lenovo's ambitions stretch, and whether the

company plans to eventually target the highly

competitive U.S. market.

Lenovo is betting that the mobile Internet will be a catalyst for growth over the next few years, just as the Chinese computer maker is getting into handsets.

"Mobile Internet is very important," Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said in an interview with the AP. "Even today, notebook sales already are higher than desktops. Mobile Internet products are going to be 70 to 80 percent of our sales ... within three to five years."

The company, which has collaborated with many companies in the wireless industry in the past on netbooks with embedded wireless modules, sees mobile Internet devices as an area that the company can "attack," Yang said. In January, Lenovo bought back its mobile handset division for $200 million; it had sold the company in 2008.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Lenovo unveiled a smartphone running Google's Android platform that it plans to release for the Chinese market this May. The company is joining a raft of other PC makers, including Acer and Dell, in jumping on the Android bandwagon.

Read more: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lenovo-sees-mobile-money-maker/2010-03-12?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss#ixzz0i6SH2u8f