Lenovo quarterly profit climbs with boost in PC market share

Lenovo Group announced on Thursday that its net profit for the second quarter rose 19 percent as it increased its presence in the global PC and smartphone markets.

The Chinese computer giant recorded a net profit of $262.1 million for the three-month period ended September 30, up from $219.7 million a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting an average of $259.8 million, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Lenovo, the world's largest maker of personal computers, reported its second-quarter revenue rose 7 percent to $10.48 billion from $9.77 billion.

"Lenovo had another strong quarter that saw excellent market share gains and profit expansion," Yuanqing Yang, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, said in a statement. "Not only did we reach nearly 20 percent share in PCs, but we became #1 in the broader PC+ tablet market for the first time."

Despite an ailing global PC market, Lenovo managed to grow its market share in the second quarter. The company retained its No. 1 PC sales position by capturing 20 percent of the worldwide market, according to preliminary results released last month by market researcher Gartner, an 11 percent increase over the year ago quarter.

Meanwhile, Lenovo shipped nearly 17 million smartphones in the second quarter, an increase of 38 percent, according to market researcher IDC, making it the No. 4 smartphone maker in the world with 5.2 percent of the market, another key focus for the Beijing-based company. Late last month, Lenovo closed its $2.91 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, gaining a larger foothold in the US and other developed markets.

Lenovo also trumpeted growth in the enterprise and app arenas. The company reported that sales of ThinkServer enterprise products are growing 35 percent year over year and that its Lenovo App Store is seeing 30 million downloads each day, more than twice than a year ago.