Lenovo to boost its Indian market share

 BANGALORE - Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's number three PC maker, plans to boost its market share in India as banks, firms and households spend more on computers, an official said on Wednesday.

"Very clearly, our objectives are to grow significantly faster than the market," said Ajay Mittal, vice president (brand and marketing) of Lenovo's India operations, on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a new range of laptops.

Mittal declined to give specific numbers, but said sales of Lenovo desktop computers and laptops in November were 3-4 times higher than April this year, when the company launched its range of products in India.

"It (India) is a very high focused market that we have," he said. "I am adding resources faster than we ever did to not just stay with the (market) growth rates but even to accelerate it."

China's Lenovo, which vies with bigger rivals Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. globally, plans to increase retail outlets to 1,175 by March 2007 across India, from 341 in April this year.

Mittal said Lenovo, which has a manufacturing facility in Pondicherry, saw strong demand for laptops and desktop computers from small and medium enterprises and households.

Sales of desktop computers in India grew 27 percent in the year to March 2006 to over 4.6 million units and it is forecast to surpass 5.6 million units in 2006/07, said a recent industry survey.

There is a strong demand for computers from the fast-growing banking, financial services, telecoms and information technology industries that are automating business processes and setting up nationwide IT networks.

Falling prices, cheaper finance and rising salaries are also fuelling retail demand.