PC sales are expected to fall by 14 percent in 2013 to 314 million, putting pressure on the world's largest PC maker

In the United States, Lenovo is still known as the Chinese company that bought IBM's PC business.

​

In China, it is known as the world's No. 1 computer manufacturer and not the smartest computing powerhouse in China.

​

Lenovo is currently the largest brand name for smartphones in China after Samsung Electronics. The company, which has never had modest plans, is looking to build on that success and start entering the US and other rich markets in 2014.

"We are looking forward to being the number one mobile operator in the world," said GD Howard, Lenovo's vice president in charge of developing the smart phone business outside China. "I realized it was a bit crazy, but it was only five years ago if I said we would be number one in the PC, people said we were crazy," he said.

​

The company must balance - and some will argue - a mix of American and Chinese cultures. The company has two headquarters in Beijing and Mooseville in North Carolina, with 18 nationalities represented among the top 100 managers in the world. Despite its global success in the field of personal computers and locally in the field of smart phones, its future in the advanced markets for smartphones dominated by Apple and Samsung fortified, never bode similar success.

​

But the company is used to offering surprises. Lenovo was founded in 1984 by Liu Chuanzi, a computer scientist and a group of engineers funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the government-linked research institute, which still has an indirect stake in Lenovo.

​

Liu, who was sent to a rice farm to work as a worker during the Cultural Revolution, shocked the world when Lenovo bought IBM personal computer activity. IBM's acquisition of the emerging company has earned credibility and excellence because the company has acquired the right to use the name of ThinkPad Commercial Mobile, a popular name among companies around the world.

​

Lenovo has also entered into other agreements that have earned it presence in major markets such as Germany, Brazil and Japan.

By September 2013, Lenovo was firmly positioned to be at the top of the PC industry. PC computers sold more than two large companies, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, as well as its declining counterparts, Acer and Asus, based in Taiwan.

​

Lenovo's share in world PC exports is 16.7 percent, according to market research institutions monitored by Gartner and International Data Corporation, known as IDC.

​

In January 2012, a new device was launched under the name of Yoga, which mixes the advantages of tablet and tablet, including a touch screen that can be switched and sold at less than 300 times. Dollars in the United States.

​

As well as that this tablet works on Android operating system Google, which has been and remains an important success factor for Samsung smart phones and tablets. Lenovo has shown the kind of flexibility that most PC manufacturers do not have with the Microsoft operating system.

​

"The PC will not disappear tomorrow," said Peter de Hortensius, president of Lenovo's Think Business Group, which serves corporate customers. "Two hundred billion dollars is a huge cake and we think we can get a bigger piece of it," he said, noting the total sales of the PC market around the world.

​

IDC expects PC sales to fall by 14 percent in 2013 to 314 million from 364 million two-year-old devices. Some analysts said there was a decline in demand among corporate customers who stopped buying new desktops because of the weak economy.

​

The long-term trend, however, seems clear: PC is a very limited activity.

​

"Lenovo is feeling the pressure, but it may be more willing to weather the storm," said Jeff Orr, an analyst with research firm API.

​

One reason is smartphones. In 2008, its CEO, William J. Emilio, sold the company's fledgling business to an investment group for about $ 100 million. He was seeking to intensify the company's efforts on personal computers as it was suffering from the effects of the global financial crisis.

​

However, the decision proved to be wrong. Apple a year earlier had launched the iPhone, thus paving the way for the mobile Internet boom.

​

In 2009, Lenovo corrected the mistake by ousting Pamelio. The new chief executive, Yang Yuanqing, re-bought the mobile unit at a low price and worked to recover what was lost.

​

By the third quarter of this year, Lenovo's share in China's smart phone market was 13%, while Samsung Electronics' oldest share was 21%, according to the Catalis Research Foundation. It is enough that Lenovo is third in the world after Samsung and Apple. By last summer, Lenovo had been selling smart phones and laptops more than PCs, though it was 85 percent of revenue.

​

Lenovo has helped its leading PC center and close ties with retailers and mobile operators in China, the world's largest smartphone market.

​

"Lenovo knows China's market better than other foreigners and has a large distribution