back to article What downturn? Lenovo stuffs pockets with 54% extra profit

Lenovo Group is one of the few PC makers still in the pink, beating market expectations with a fat third-quarter net profit. The Chinese firm's profit jumped 54 per cent to $153.46m in the three months to December last year, up from $99.65m in the same period the year before. Despite the downturn in the global economy and the …

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  1. Arctic fox
    WTF?

    I would be very grateful if someone would explain to me what the following means.

    "look for inorganic growth opportunities which will supplement its organic growth strategy".

    I am not trolling or indulging my penchant for irony, I genuinely do not understand what the fuck they are saying. Anyone willing to help me?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I would be very grateful if someone would explain to me what the following means. → #

      It means they are looking to buy companies (inorganic growth) in addition to selling more of their current PC lines (organic growth).

      1. Arctic fox
        Thumb Up

        @Wunderbar1 Thank you very much indeed.

        Sometimes terminology one is unfamiliar with can be seriously eyecrossing! -:)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IBM

    Was it wise of IBM to sell out to Lenovo ? What magic are they working that IBM could not ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Slaves. Don't you read the news?

      1. Silverburn
        Flame

        Magic = drastically reduced quality...

        ...if my new one is anything to go by. 3 months old, and already the pointer knob rubber split, the b key crumpled then came away from the spring altogether, the wireless switch is so loose it actually switches wifi on and off with every bump of the train, and finally, it can't go 48 hrs without a full hardware reset, which it does all by itself.

        Compared to my old IBM, it a f*ing peice of s**t. Thank god, I didn't pay for it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I want my IBM back too

          I have used ThinkPads for years. My old T38 and T42 (IBM made) could basically be thrown off of a 60 story building and still work. My Lenovo T400 has had GPU error issues and locks up all the time. Lenovo knows about the widespread problem, but they don't have a fix other than replacing the motherboard. Their support sucks.... Not that the other PC companies don't have the same problems. It was kind of inevitable when PC companies tried to make PCs cost less every year, eventually quality would suffer.

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
            Unhappy

            I sad

            So basically they are burning off the brand name candle?

            1. Anonymous 3

              burning off the brand name candle

              In a word, yes.

              My 570 still works, on the occasion I boot it up (knock on wood), though the screen needs convincing and the backlight has gone pink. Still love that keyboard though. Also have two T23s that succumbed to hairline cracks after a good few years of hard use. Doesn't surprise me that the newer models break yet earlier.

              You'd think it'd be possible to cook up a nice laptop with a hi-res 13"-or-so 4:3 screen, a really good keyboard, passable graphics, all the connectivity options, a ton of memory, and a good-enough cpu that doesn't need a fan. Something like a netbook, but usable to get work done. Now for a snappy name and the cash and the contacts to pull it off. Hm. WorkBook[tm]?

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            make PCs cost less every year...

            Now the hoi polloi are all going to tablets and smartphone perhaps a niche will open up for a company that will make real laptops for people who have real work to do. A bit like the mainfram never went away, maybe laptops too will survive if you are prepared to pay.

        2. David Simpson 1

          New pointers can be bought from ebay - £1 for a pack of 5. If the switch is that bad return it for repair, keyboard keys can also be bought from ebay for a few pounds. Come back and have a moan when it melts down.

          1. Silverburn
            FAIL

            @ Dave

            I'm sorry, but what? I should just accept that these are acceptable failures in a 3 month old IBM replacement?

            No. Just...no. It should be just like my old IBM, which was 5 years old and *nothing* broken. Same as all the old IBMs in the office, come to think of it.

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  3. Ian Collier

    On what turnover?

    Are they scraping 1% on $15billion or making a hefty 30% on $450 million?

    Profit in the absence of turnover means almost nothing.

    1. frank 3
      Stop

      profit

      profit in the absence of turnover would be fraud in most people's book ;-)

      Seriously though: profit is profit is profit. If you are profitable and you don't have shareholders, then you don't give a rats arse about % rates

  4. George 8
    Alert

    Sony...

    The first thing that came to mind when I read this was Sony. Are they big and/or bold enough to go after the ultimate inorganic growth??

  5. terry 1
    Thumb Down

    not surprised

    We are reselling more Lenovos than HP. They seem to be good kit at a good price. It will be interesting to see how their support is as HP's has been pretty damned good in the past.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      not surprised → #

      Yes, everyone seems to be taking a bite out of HP. The Lenovo ThinkPads don't have IBM ThinkPad quality (IMO), but they are still pretty decent and the prices are lower.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thinkpad quality

    My T61p lasted well it's 4 year service life, only issue I had with it was the backlight starting to fade. Some of my co-workers have had issues with their T61p motherboards, but only really around the 4+ year mark.

    I just got a W520, which has been great, with the exception of Nvidia not bringing Optimus support to Linux... And I replaced my wife's Acer with a x120e, and it is doing well under Ubuntu 11.10

    The quality may not seem quite as high as the IBM days, but I still remember a rash of motherboard replacements on T41 laptops, mostly with failed USB ports. I even had a motherboard delivered via UPS Sonic Air (same day courier) for a critical laptop issue.

    After being inside IBM for the last few years, I can say that IBM really understands Enterprise, but if it's not low volume, high margin, and cradle to grave, they can't make money on it, with the exception of services. IBM is contracted by Lenovo to provide a lot of Lenovo's support services.

    AC for good obvious reasons.

  7. John Latham

    I'm done with Thinkpads

    God I love that little red nipple, and I've tried to keep the faith, but after 15 years of happily using and recommending Thinkpads I just can't put up with the quality of the stuff I've received from Lenovo in the last two or three years.

    My Macbooks just work, like my Thinkpads used to do. Maybe now that Steve has gone they can give me a nipple. Gowan, you will you will you will....

    1. Mike Cardwell

      Macbook vs Thinkpad

      I had two IBM Thinkpads, then a Macbook, and now a Lenovo Thinkpad (T420). I haven't noticed any difference in quality between the Thinkpads. They've all been great pieces of reliable kit. The Macbook on the other hand had numerous hardware failures in the 3 years I had it. The power supply died, the battery died, the hard drive died, and the plastic casing started flaking off.

  8. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Glossy Screens

    At least the T500 that I have does not have a silly glossy screen much like thlt the T43p it replaced.

    Finding a laptop without a screen that is next to unusable in proper light is getting difficult these days.

  9. MrSeaneyC
    Unhappy

    Have to agree with the quality

    My x201 had a dodgy thinklight after just over a year, and a dodgy wifi switch from day one (but I always leave it to on and turn it off in software) and the batteries (6 and 9 cell) have had a bit of a dodgy fit since day one, and I had to send it back 9 months after purchase as the internal USB header that runs the keyboard and trackpad and nipple died which seems a bit dodgy. I think we see a theme here.

    Easy to see where Lenovo made money where IBM couldn't, by supplying kit that isn't as good!

    Conversely, the build of my Macs from my iBook to my present day Air via Macbooks and Macbook Pros has only got better, but the price has gotten cheaper and cheaper.

  10. zanto
    Thumb Up

    their T series of laptops are still good

    i don't know about other lenovo products, but their T series ThinkPads are fantastic. i've used a T-60, 410 and am currently on a T-420. sturdy, reliable, great battery life, good screen resolution. i cannot imagine doing serious work on another laptop.

  11. FreeTard

    Cheaper than older thinkpads?

    A college mate has one of the new thinkpads, I forget the model but it was 300 odd quid which was very cheap I thought.

    My X61s originally cost 1000+ but it has larger screen real estate (approx same size physically|) and has more buttons on it than the new X-series. It has also survived many many tumbles... last time was a month ago where it was dropped (by me) down a flight of stairs. I was sure it was fsck'd but no. Still working fine. Will the new thinkpads be equally durable? Time will tell.

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