2014/06/25 Lenovo’s Coming Disruption in Smartphones Highlighted in New Strategy Analytics Research

Lenovo Not Poised To Disrupt Smartphones?  Think Again!

Boston, MA – June 18, 2014.  Strategy Analytics’ latest research on Lenovo’s pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google says the merger could have a significant disruptive impact on the mobile market.  Using a proprietary methodology to measure disruption developed by the firm’s Strategic Competitor Intelligence (SCI) program, the disruptive measure earned a score of 87 in one key category, indicating a level of potential disruption categorized in the “Hurricane” range, a classification reserved for events that present a serious potential disruptive impact to the market.  SCI’s methodology measures disruption on six dimensions, including User Proposition, Business Model, Geography, Technology, Partners, and Finance, and scores them on three dimensions including hardware, software, and ecosystem. 

Richard Guppy, SCI Executive Director, noted:  “Lenovo might be seen as just another smartphone vendor among many operating mainly or totally in the Chinese market – but it grew from a similar position in PCs, using IBM’s ‘Think’ brand to help take the world number one PC position recently.  I believe Lenovo is using that know-how to try a similar move in smartphones, with a potentially huge impact on market share and margins at a time when most vendors are already struggling for margin.”

Barry Gilbert, Vice President, said: “Lenovo is good at making smart acquisitions and at effectively integrating them – just consider IBM PCs and NEC’s PC business in Japan – and so it stands every chance of unlocking its growth potential in smartphones using the formidable assets of Motorola Mobility.”

The Disruptive Alert argues that there are different phases in consumer electronics markets, and the current phase of the Android market is perfect for Lenovo to make its late, accelerated entry, leveraging the Motorola acquisition.