Lenovo today, Asus tomorrow. How will PC makers fair in a Post PC World?
There have been a whole slew of earnings reports as consumer electronics companies report on their efforts to win hearts, minds, and wallets from consumers in 2013. Lenovo announced better than expected earnings and bold predictions for the future as they court investors with a blend of caution and temptation after two major acquisitions. Our analysis of their performance with North America consumers confirms what the market already knows, that Lenovo has significant untapped potential with consumers. The graph below shows their performance in line with Acer and well below the market gorillas of Apple and Samsung.
Question is, how will Asus fair when they announce earnings on 14 Feb 2013. Our assessment is that Asus will do better than expected given the strong showing over holiday. We realize that the US market is not the only one that matters to these global purveyors of consumer technology and believe a strong Holiday 2013 can only help. Increasingly Asus products have been successfully positioned as less expensive alternatives to Apple and Samsung products. This has been driving in part to increased demand for Asus convertibles over other 2-in-1 laptop/tablets and larger demand for Asus tablets over the holidays. As Asus, like Lenovo, seeks to bring their smartphones to the US market (maybe they should look at buying BlackBerry…) this will only add to their share of US wallets, if they can differentiate against the other players. ZTE and Samsung are already playing to win in the low price smartphone segment. With Asus moving in, there will be blood in the water and hopefully smiles on the faces of consumers.