Lenovo breaks ground on $800M mobile devices facility
Continuing its mobile-devices push, the world's second-largest PC maker announces a new base in central China focused on research, production, and sales of smartphones and tablets.
Continuing its push into the mobile devices market, Chinese PC maker Lenovo broke ground Monday on a new base in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that will focus on research, production and sales of mobile devices.
Lenovo, which in late 2011 became the world's second-largest PC maker, issued a statement that the 5 billion yuan ($800 million) facility could eventually house as many as 10,000 employees and will focus on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices for Chinese and global markets. The facility is expected to begin operating in October 2013.
Mobile devices still make up a small portion of Lenovo's overall sales, but represent a lot of future growth as global PC sales lag behind mobile devices. Lenovo created a business unit last year called the Mobile Internet Digital Home.
"As an industry leader, we are aggressively moving forward into the PC-plus era, and with our Mobile Internet Digital Home group actively engaged, we are accelerating development in smart phones, tablets, and other mobile Internet terminal markets," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Group chairman and CEO, in a statement.
