From PC+to device+cloud: can Lenovo's strategic transformation work
As Lenovo was in the throes of transformation, the Lenovo Tech World Conference held in Silicon Valley of the United States recently was particularly eye-catching, and also triggered various debates. There were both bulls and losers. So what is the truth?
In fact, whether an enterprise can continue to develop or change the current unfavorable situation, VPS server The adjustment of strategy is crucial. From this perspective, what impressed us most about Tech World this time was Lenovo's new strategy of "device+cloud". As the industry knows, Lenovo has always emphasized the PC+strategy. Then came the question, why did Lenovo abandon the original PC+strategy and choose the device+cloud strategy? What is the reason behind it?
As we all know, with the rapid development of mobile devices (such as laptops) that are different from traditional PCs, such as smart phones and wearable devices, the application mode and concept that originally used traditional PCs as the core of computing and connection are facing challenges, and may be replaced by new mobile devices represented by smart phones. It should be noted that the reason why we use it is because traditional PCs are constantly innovating in the face of the impact of mobile devices such as smart phones, such as the birth of PC/tablet two in one devices that combine tablet and PC functions and experiences, and the introduction of new growth engines called traditional PCs, more smart phone technologies and functions (such as voice and fingerprint recognition, fast charging technology, etc.) Etc. So there is still some uncertainty about who will become the center of computing and connection in the future. As for Lenovo, it is precisely because of this uncertainty in the industrial development, coupled with the temporary downturn in the development of Lenovo's smartphone business, that it is full of controversy and even criticism in the industry. More importantly, in view of the uncertainty of this industry development trend, Lenovo must find a new strategic model, which can not only cope with the challenges and risks brought by this uncertainty from the perspective of the future, but also change the downturn of existing businesses (such as smart phone business) at the moment, and device+cloud is undoubtedly Lenovo's best choice.
The transformation from PC+to device+cloud strategy is by no means a simple literal difference, but a transformation from innovation, products, marketing, channels, applications and many other strategic factors. Take the smart phone that Lenovo has been criticized and even considered as a failure in transformation as an example. Under the guidance of the PC+strategy, the PC is considered to be the core of everything, so Lenovo's innovation, marketing, marketing and other strategies and models in PC have been naturally extended to smart phones, such as relying on operator channels to pursue scale Ignored the difference between PC and mobile phone channels, slow pace of innovation, many product lines, and even overlap. In the new device+cloud strategy, all devices are the core. Of course, this core is not aimed at the core of Lenovo's revenue and profit sources, but Lenovo should re formulate product innovation, channel, marketing and other strategies in any of its devices in combination with the characteristics and trends of the device in its industry. After returning to Lenovo from the ZUK mobile phone, Lenovo's clear market positioning in the smartphone business is Moto's focus on high-end, ZUK's focus on middle and high-end, and Lemon's focus on low-end (a change from the previous problem of many product lines and unclear market positioning) It can be seen from the release of the world's first PHAB2 Pro and modular Moto Z mobile phones with AR function using Google Tango technology in Tech World recently.
When it comes to AR and modular mobile phones, because Google has been involved in both (corresponding to Tango and Ara) before, Google has never been able to commercialize them, or the process of marketization has not been smooth (for example, the abortion of the Project Ara test project in Puerto Rico before), which naturally triggered concern in the industry about the application prospects of these two technologies in the mobile phone industry. However, what we want to say is that Lenovo mobile phones have commercialized these technologies. While proving Lenovo's innovation ability, its ability to market should not be underestimated. As for the future, from the perspective of the current industry leaders Apple, Google and Microsoft, AR is one of their efforts, and modular mobile phones are also considered by the industry as the key to breaking the homogenization of the smartphone industry. Therefore, Lenovo's adoption of these two technologies in this conference not only changed Lenovo's previous predicament of neglecting innovation in the mobile phone business, but also stood in the forefront. However, Lenovo's goal of not pursuing profitability in its mobile phone business, formulated in combination with the actual situation, can ensure that Lenovo will maintain this momentum of innovation without pressure on its performance and take the lead when a new wave of development of the smart phone industry comes. In addition, about two years should be enough time for Lenovo to rebuild its sales channels for the mobile phone market and carry out effective marketing.
If the above is the change of Lenovo's smartphone as one of the most concerned devices in the industry under the new device+cloud strategy, what about the device PC that has always been dominant? We believe that the PC device side should be the last thing we should worry about for Lenovo. For one thing, Lenovo currently occupies the top position in the global PC industry. For another thing, Lenovo has always adopted the PC+strategy. The PC has always been the only device in its strategy, so its innovation investment and strength here are no problem, This is why Lenovo's perception of the outside world on this Tech World is the main reason for turning its focus to mobile phones - it seems that the shift of the center does not mean that Lenovo will no longer innovate in PCs, but that it needs to invest more resources than PCs in terms of mobile phone business.
Similar to PCs, Lenovo currently ranks among the top in terms of both shipments and revenue in terms of cloud infrastructure equipment (such as servers, storage, networks, etc.). According to Gartner's latest statistics, in the first quarter of this year, Lenovo ranked third in terms of shipments and fourth in terms of revenue in the global server market, and was in the first camp with HP, Dell and IBM, which specialize in enterprise business. At this Tech World conference, with the launch of Lenovo's high-performance server product X6, high-density ThinkServer SD350, software defined storage StorSelect, enhanced storage product portfolio Lenovo V Series and related solutions, integrated infrastructure HX series and applications, as well as network facilities and high-performance computing solutions, It shows that Lenovo's innovation and development in cloud computing infrastructure equipment still won't worry the industry.
From the above, it is easy to see that Lenovo's mobile phone, PC and enterprise businesses have shown innovation, channel, marketing and other trends and layout on the device side in line with their respective industrial characteristics, that is, Lenovo's new device+cloud strategy has been ready for the devices, followed by how these devices reflect their value. In fact, since March this year, Lenovo has identified personal computer (PC), mobile business and enterprise business as its three growth engines, VPS server Reorganize the three business groups, while the original cloud service business group, and the product related teams will be merged into each business group. Cloud applications will be the link for Lenovo's devices to play their value, so that devices and cloud services can be better combined. It should be noted that the cloud in Lenovo's new device+cloud strategy is not only the cloud application and service of a certain type of device or industry, but also the cloud application and service of seamless connection between all devices and all Lenovo related industries, that is, end-to-end connection and cloud service.
To sum up, we believe that Lenovo's transformation from PC+to device+cloud strategy has been well practiced at this Tech World conference. Since Lenovo is a strategic adjustment, it still needs time and waiting for the future results.
