LENOVO
Rising to the challenges While the PC market has been challenging in the past couple of years, there are now grounds for optimism and Lenovo is well placed to help resellers capitalise on the developing opportunities in the market, according to the company’s vice president channel EMEA.
The past couple of years have not been easy for the PC sector, as Ralf Jordan, Lenovo’s vice president channel EMEA, admits – but this is set to change in 2024. “Last year, the market in the PC space was very challenging, where we as an industry had high inventory levels but demand softness coming in,” he says. Ralf adds this was a legacy from the years of COVID followed by the supply chain issues of 2022. “2023 was a year of cleaning up from the problems in the market of the previous years and consolidating our position in the market, and I believe we have done that successfully,” he says. “We kept the number one position in the PC space for the year. And in the infrastructure market, we took market share in what I believe is quite a challenging market environment with high interest rates and inflation becoming a much more important factor than in the past.” But while 2023 had its challenges, it was nonetheless a good year for Lenovo, and Ralf is optimistic that 2024 can be even better for the company as well as the wider channel. “I go into 2024 very optimistic and seeing a lot of opportunity for the channel,” he says. “I believe that in the PC world, there are drivers
that will see the market start to grow again. For example, there is the upcoming Windows 11 refresh, you have AI PCs, all of that is coming and will drive demand in 2024. “Also with the infrastructure market, one of the main themes I see for 2024 is that the market isn’t about hybrid or multi-cloud – one or the other – anymore, it exists as an integral plan. This is across the board too – large enterprises and SMBs.” Ralf adds that in most situations now, they are talking about a combination of on-premise, public and private cloud. “The good thing about that for the channel is that it represents a lot of opportunity, because all of that needs to be managed, secured and serviced,” he says. “I think that's where ultimately it will drive business.” On the edge Another driver of business will be edge computing. “Edge will be a key driver this year – this is something that most companies in the sector are predicting, that most of the compute power tomorrow will be installed at the edge,” Ralf says. “That's different from the past. Compute is coming to storage and to data. And when you think about edge,
Ralf Jordan vice president channel EMEA
lenovo.com
Compute is coming to storage and to data. And when you think about edge, you talk about different physical places and different contacts in the end users. “ ”
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