BEIJING -- Personal computer maker Lenovo Group said Thursday its quarterly profit rose 13 per cent as mobile and cloud-based businesses expanded.
The company earned US$162 million, or 1.6 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. Global revenues rose 11 per cent to $8.7 billion.
Lenovo is vying with Hewlett-Packard Co. to become the world's biggest personal computer maker but faces a market in which the fastest demand growth is for mobile devices. Research firm Gartner said last month Lenovo outsold HP in the latest quarter but IDC still had HP on top.
Lenovo said sales at its 2-year-old mobile Internet group rose 155 per cent to $718 million.
"Our global PC market share reached another historic high, moving us closer to our dream of becoming the worldwide PC leader," said chairman Yang Yuanqing in a statement. He said emerging markets outside China have reached "the profitable growth stage," improving the prospects for future earnings.
Still, profit growth was lower than the previous quarter's 30 per cent, reflecting cooling demand for PCs as customer interest shifts to tablets, smartphones and other wireless devices.
PC shipments in Lenovo's home China market grew by 8 per cent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 59 per cent. Sales in North America grew 7 per cent to $1.2 billion in a market in which Lenovo said overall sales contracted by 12 per cent.
Lenovo released a new version of its ThinkPad notebook computer, the X1 Carbon, in August that it said was lighter and quicker to appeal to customers who want the convenience of a tablet. Lenovo acquired the ThinkPad brand with IBM Corp.'s personal computer unit in 2005.
Lenovo said its acquisitions during the latest quarter included Stoneware, an Indiana software company focused on cloud computing.
