Lenovo to unveil global brand ambitions

Lenovo Group will unveil a new range of computers next Thursday at press conferences in 10 cities worldwide, marking its first foray into global markets after its purchase of IBM's ailing PC business in May last year, the South China Morning Post reported. Analyst Rob Enderle of The Enderle Group said the move could establish Lenovo as a global brand. It's an incredibly powerful move for a Chinese company to do, Mr Enderle said. Lenovo, which is a major sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, has strong ambitions to become a global brand. This is our coming-out party: The Olympics got our name out in front of the world, and these will be the brand name products well be introducing with that, said Jeff Dudash, a Lenovo spokesman. The new products, which are targeted at small businesses and consumers, include two lines of desktop computers, starting at US$350, and a new laptop line starting at US$599 notebooks. In the fourth quarter of last year, Lenovo had a 7.2% market share, compared to Dell's 17.2% and Hewlett-Packard's 15.7%.