BEIJING: To
offset falling PC sales and reduce its reliance on ThinkPad notebooks,
Lenovo Group is adding a gaming service that the computer maker says can
help it overtake Samsung Electronics in smartphones in China. Lenovo
Game World will include social-networking features, software reviews and
gameplay tips when it starts in the third quarter, offering popular
titles"Fruit Ninja" for devices such as the computer maker's Ideaphone
K900 that run Google's Android operating system.
Software
and services underpin Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing's push to
sell more handsets as demand for personal computers slides. While
Lenovo's app store has logged more than 1 billion downloads since it
opened in 2010, the company is looking to Game World for an edge in the
biggest market for handsets,mobile-game sales of $1.6 billion this year
will rise about 50 per cent annually for the next three years,
researcher Analysys International predicts.
Unlike
the US,Google and Amazon-. com Inc. dominate sales of Android
applications , China has hundreds of companies offering mobile software.
Lenovo wants to set itself apart that crowd with featuresthose
available on Apple's Game Center, such as global leader boards that let
players see how they compare to the world's best. "A mobile platform for
entertainment is becoming more and more important in today's handset
industry," said Ricky Lai, an analyst at Guotai Junan International
Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong.
"The more fans
Lenovo can get on their own platform, the more customers will want to
use that kind of handset." Sales of mobile games in China will rise
55%to 9.6 billion yuan this year, Analysys forecast in a report last
month. Users of mobile games will rise 30% to 280 million this year,
Analysys says. Lenovo is expanding into smartphones, tablets, TVs and
home entertainment systems.
