Chinese PC-maker Lenovo yesterday appointed Ma Daojie (in Chinese), a former China Mobile executive, as the executive vice president of its China Mobile Business Group (MBG), as it tries to bolster its teetering smartphone business.
Ma, also ex-general manager of China Telecom’s mobile terminal subsidiary eSurfing, will report to Gina Qiao, Lenovo’s senior vice president and MGB co-president, and assist the China MBG achieve strategic breakthroughs and transformation.
The move comes after Jiang Zhen, a former mid-level Samsung executive, joined Lenovo last month as the firm’s vice president heading China MBG in product strategy and product management.
Moreover, the Chinese technology giant has already poached Gary Yu, former general manager at China Mobile’s Zhejiang subsidiary, to serve as its vice president in charge of smartphone sales.
The appointments signal Lenovo’s determination to revive the glory days of its smartphone business in China when it crowned the Chinese market with a share of 12.5% (in Chinese).
In recent years, the smartphone unit of the Chinese technology giant saw declines in both global shipment and revenue. It recorded an operating loss of US$ 112 million in the fiscal third quarter last year, with revenue tumbling 23% to $2.2 billion during the same period (in Chinese), according to the firm’s Q3 2016 report released in February.
With the PC market shrinking, Lenovo has been striving to diversify its revenue source, whose PC and smart device business account for around 70% of its total revenue, according to the financial report. However, it has not fared well in its endeavor into the smartphone business.