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hina-based PC manufacturer Lenovo has officially launched a subsidiary company in Indonesia in a bid to strengthen its foothold in Indonesia’s PC market.

The second-largest PC manufacturer in the world is currently ranked number four in Indonesia, with a total market share of 7.7 percent last year, according to Lenovo Indonesia president director Sandy Lumy during a press conference on Friday.

“Indonesia dominates 35 percent of Lenovo’s market in Southeast Asia and we are planning to increase our market share in Indonesia from 7.7 percent to 10 percent this year,” Sandy said, adding that the subsidiary company had been operating since April 1 at Wisma 46 Kota BNI in Jakarta.

He said that with the new company, Lenovo could cut the delivery time of products imported from China, from six weeks down to only four weeks.

“We usually conducted the labeling and pre-shipment inspection in Singapore, a process that can take up to 10 days, which was very time consuming. Now the process takes place in China, and the products are directly shipped to Indonesia,” he said.

He added that with the new subsidiary, Lenovo would assume the risk of the fluctuating rupiah for Lenovo’s retail and business partners.

“The new office will aid Lenovo’s transactions with business partners in Indonesia as they will now be able to buy and sell our PCs in rupiah. They can also pay for products once they have arrived, whereas before, they had to pay for them prior to shipping,” said Sandy.

One of the most highly anticipated products from Lenovo is its IdeaPad Yoga ultrabook that was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this year. The Yoga, which has a thickness of 16.9 millimeters, weighs only 1.47 kilograms and can be flipped to a 360-degree angle and thus transformed into a tablet, costs US$1,199.

However, Sandy was reluctant to disclose when the ultrabook would be launched in Indonesia.

“One thing is for sure, we are aiming to reach all sectors in Indonesia, not only the premium segment,” he said.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Indonesia’s PC market reported a growth rate of 8.6 percent with 1.37 million computers shipped in the fourth quarter last year. The data also showed that by the end of 2011, there were 5.38 million PCs traded, which represented 7.5 percent year-on-year growth.

“With the growth in total sales of PCs in the country, we saw a great opportunity and we are aiming to attract more retailers and add more service centers in order to boost our sales in the country,” said Sandy, adding that Lenovo currently had five retail chains and 66 service centers in 30 cities around Indonesia.

The data from the IDC also showed that the shipping of PCs into Indonesia during the fourth quarter last year was dominated by
the Acer Group (25.2 percent), followed by ASUS (16.3 percent), Hewlett-Packard (10.7 percent), Lenovo (7.7 percent) and Toshiba (7.3 percent). (nad)