14 DAY TRIAL // We've said it often over the past few years, how the mobile market was growing at the expense of the PC front, and how companies that deal in desktops and laptops have been feeling the effect of the slowdown, but Lenovo continues to be the exception to the rule.
Although that's actually not a strong enough word. Lenovo seems to literally be flourishing as everyone else incurs losses or sees profit dips.
For one thing, Lenovo reported record revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013, which happens to be its third quarter for its fiscal year 2014.
A record 32.6 million devices were shipped during the October-December period, which means 5 devices per second. Almost.
Of those, 15.3 million were PCs, both desktops and laptops. It's less than the 17.3 million smartphones and tablets that the company managed, but still 9.1% more than what Lenovo sold in the same period of 2012.
For those who want further specifics, Lenovo tablets reached 3.4 million units, 300% more than in the fourth quarter of 2012 (Q3 of FY 2013). The Yoga Tablet did most of the work there.
Moving on, laptops were the ones that contributed most to Lenovo's finances, accounting for 50% of the money that flowed into its coffers during the three months.
"Lenovo had outstanding performance last quarter, delivering both record revenue and record profit. Leveraging strong execution of our strategy, innovative products and growth in our PC Plus business, we continue delivering on our commitment to improve our profitability and we are confident we will maintain this momentum in our existing businesses," said Yang Yuanqing (PDF), chairman and CEO of Lenovo.
From this moment on, Lenovo expects to make even greater gains now that it has bought the server divisions from IBM and Motorola. There are still some approvals that need to be granted, but they are just a matter of time.
All in all, Lenovo made over $10 billion in Q4 2013, which means €7.31 billion. It was 15% better than in Q4 2012.