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Margins Don't Compute
2009年 11月 06日
Back in the black, and how. Lenovo's strategy of refocusing on the Chinese market is starting to show some return.
Its domestic dominance, though, hasn't solved all of the company's problems. In fact, it has raised a new one. Margins are deteriorating as Lenovo sells to customers outside China's top cities.
Lenovo posted a $53 million profit in the quarter ended in September, though $38 million of that was a gain from investment disposals. Still, the profit ended three quarters of losses and is a clear sign the company's leading position in China is paying off. It now has 29% of one of the few markets world-wide showing significant growth. In turn, Lenovo now holds an 8.9% share of global personal-computer shipments, its highest ever.
The focus on China and other emerging markets was part of a revamp Lenovo's management announced earlier this year. Necessity as much as foresight hastened that change. Lenovo's 2005 takeover of IBM's PC business never delivered the kind of global market presence the Chinese company desired.
Nonetheless, Lenovo clearly knows the Chinese market well and has benefited this year from Beijing's economic-stimulus efforts, notably its subsidies to help rural Chinese people buy computers. In all, Lenovo's PC shipments in China rose 22% on year over the six months to the end of September.
But gross margin for the first half dropped to 10.8% from 13.7% a year ago, a result of lower selling prices and competition that Lenovo's impressive cost controls couldn't offset. This erosion could continue as competition heats up. Despite its domestic advantages, Lenovo saw its market share in China rise only 0.1% year on year.
Lenovo could also find itself at a disadvantage as developed markets start buying again and rivals find themselves better-positioned to sell higher-margin desktops and notebooks.
But for now, Lenovo is winning one of the few games in town.
联想集团扭亏为盈了，的确如此。联想将重点重新放到中国市场的战略正开始获得一些成效。
不过，联想在国内的主导地位并未解决公司的所有问题。事实上，它还带来了新的问题。随着联想向中国大城市之外的消费者销售电脑，利润率出现了进一步的恶化。
联想在截至9月份当季实现了5,300万美元的利润，不过其中有3,800万美元来自投资处置利得。尽管如此，当季实现盈利终于结束了3个季度的亏损局面，这显示出联想在中国的领先位置正在获得回报。在这个为数不多的全球仍实现强劲增长的市场中，它的占有率为29%。而目前联想在全球个人电脑发货量中所占的份额为8.9%，是有史以来的最高水平。
将重点放在中国和其它新兴市场上是联想管理层年初时宣布的变动之一。危机感和预见性加快了这种改变。联想2005年对IBM个人电脑业务的收购一直未能带来它所希望的那种全球市场占有率。
不过，联想非常了解中国市场，而且今年从北京的经济刺激措施中受益匪浅，尤其得益于对农村居民购买电脑提供补贴的做法。总体而言，在截至今年9月份的6个月中，联想在中国的个人电脑发货量比上年同期增长了22%。
但上半年的毛利润率从上年同期的13.7%下降到了10.8%，这是销售价格下降和竞争的结果，联想令人印象深刻的成本控制也未能抵消这点。竞争的加剧可能继续导致利润率的下降。尽管在国内市场占据优势，但联想在中国的市场份额仅比上年同期增长了0.1%。
随着发达市场开始再度购买电脑，和竞争对手发现自己在销售利润率较高的台式机和笔记本电脑上处于更有利的位置，联想可能也会发现自己处于不利的境地。
但起码现在，联想赢得了在中国的这场比赛。
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发表于 2016-8-12 16:29:34