Windows, Android devices coming from Lenovo

Lenovo has taken the lead in the global PC market share rankings in the third quarter of this year ahead of Hewlett Packard.

Graham Braum‚ the South African manager for Lenovo‚ said on Monday that the company would add tablets into its portfolio to cater for different market segments.

The Microsoft-powered tablets will be available in the next few weeks‚ while the Android based devices will be launched in the first quarter of next year. Microsoft will launch its Windows 8 operating system this week.

Braum sees tablets as an extension of the PC range‚ which he refers to as the "PC-plus era".

Lenovo's strategy is to play a key role in addressing the increasing demand from consumers to stay connected on different devices. The PC-plus era includes PCs‚ tablet computers‚ smart phones‚ smart TVs‚ as well as cloud and enterprise computing. The PC-plus era brings the promise of seamless transition between the various devices‚ said Lenovo.

"We are in an era where we have to address multiple consumers with different aspirations. Our strategy is to identify which devices will be suitable for which markets‚" he said.

According to Braum in the past 18 months many devices including PCs were bought by individual consumers for personal use as they embraced the new phenomenon of bring your own device to work and use them while you work.

According to research released this month by global research firm Gartner‚ PC shipments in Europe‚ Middle East and Africa (EMEA) totalled 25.8 million units in the third quarter of 2012‚ a decline of 8.7% from the same quarter last year.

"After two consecutive quarters of growth‚ this quarter saw the worst decline in EMEA PC shipments in the past four years. The lack of appeal and innovation in PCs‚ combined with a challenging economic environment‚ led the consumer spend to move to other devices‚" said Ranjit Atwal‚ research director at Gartner.