Lenovo wants to overtake Dell or Hewlett-Packard

Lenovo, now the world's third-biggest PC firm, wants to oust one of the top two, Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Lenovo bought IBM's PC unit for $1.8bn (£931m) and may buy other foreign firms to counter competition in its own market from Dell, HP and Chinese firms.

Lenovo's chief Stephen Ward unveiled the plans in a letter to staff.

Huge market

Mr Ward was formerly general manager of IBM's personal systems unit.

In February, Lenovo posted a profit of HK$327m (£223m) for the three months to end-December, not much higher than the HK$325m of the same period a year earlier.

The PC market in China is now the second-largest in the world and is set to grow at a rate of 13% this year.

However, some analysts were sceptical about how easy it would be for Lenovo to double profits.

Marvin Lo, a BNP Paribas analyst, said it could be done if warranty costs were kept under control and margins at the IBM business were raised.