IBM reported in PC unit sale to Lenovo

On Friday and over the weekend, IBM was reported in talks with leading China personal computer maker Lenovo about selling its commodity PC business. IBM, which introduced the PC in 1981, declined comment, but it is thought a sale could take any number of forms from a joint venture to a contract manufacturing deal with Lenovo making a portion of its production with IBM's brand. IBM has increasingly focused on high-end semiconductors, software and computing services in support of utility or grid computing whereby CPU power and applications are distributed like metered electricity. It offloaded desktop-making years ago, and more recently notebooks, although it still manufactures some through a JV plant with Great Wall Technology in Shenzhen. While its worldwide desktop market share has fallen to under 6%, ranking it third along with Gateway, behind first and second place Dell and HP, IBM has a 14% share in premium-earning notebooks.