With cloud computing on the rise and hardware becoming increasingly commoditized, it hardly comes as a surprise that IBM, Google, and Sony decided to simultaneously liquidate portions of their hardware businesses in a two-week span earlier this year. However, Chinese tech giant Lenovo has taken a completely opposite approach, purchasing IBM’s server business and Google’s previously acquired Motorola smartphone business. Mack Institute Executive Director Saikat Chaudhuri points out the strategic merits of Lenovo’s recent moves, although he highlights key challenges that it must overcome.
In particular, regarding the Motorola acquisition, will Lenovo be able to succeed where Google has not? Lenovo hopes to enter the field of integrated, higher-end services, and its expansion into hardware puts it at an advantageous position by lowering costs. Nevertheless, as Google and Microsoft demonstrated, integrating software and hardware is no simple feat.
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