Made mistakes, will bounce back: Lenovo CEO
Bengaluru, Aug 2 : Admitting that Lenovo made some "mistakes" in the smartphones business in India, company CEO Yang Yuanqing on Thursday vowed to bounce back by launching right products for the India market under both its Lenovo and Motorola brand.
"India is a very important market for us. We have room for improvements in the smartphones business," Yuanqing said while participating in a roundtable conference, along with other members of the Lenovo Executive Council, which is the highest decision making body of the company.
"Overall, our target is to generate revenue of up to $6 billion in the next five years from India," Yuanqing said, adding the company is focusing on scaling all verticals of its businesses including the personal computer (PC) and smart devices segment that includes tablets, and data centre business, besides the smartphones segment.
While Lenovo's PC and tablets business have continued to post robust growth in India over the past few years, its market share in the smartphones business has seen a decline in the 2017-2018 financial year, coming down to about six per cent, from nine per cent in the previous financial year, the company said, citing data from the International Data Corp (IDC).
"In the PC segment, we grew by 43 per cent while the market grew by just five per cent and in Tablets segment, we were no 1," Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO, Lenovo India, said.
"The dual brand strategy of rolling out smartphones under both the Lenovo and Motorola brand has not affected us adversely. We will continue to revamp product portfolios under both the brands. The two brands can be complimentary," Yuanqing said, adding the company plans to target the premium segment with the Motorola brand and the affordable and entry segments mostly through the Lenovo brand.
He added that where the company did not do too well in the past year was on its service strategies and in appealing consumers from more places within the country.
"Going ahead, we will have different product portfolios and cost structures for online and offline distribution channels," the Lenovo CEO added.
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Court allows 5-day police custody of Bibhav Kumar in Swati Maliwal assault case
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court allowed five-day custodial interrogation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, sing the police remand was a "necessity" in the matter.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal was hearing the application of Delhi Police which was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava. The police had sought seven day custody.
It is alleged that Kumar, who is Kejriwal's personal assistant, assaulted AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM's residence on May 13.
"Considering the submissions made on behalf of both the parties, I find there is a necessity of police custody remand in the present case. Accordingly, the application moved by the investigating officer (IO) is partly allowed and the accused is remanded to police custody for five days," the court said in its order passed around 12:45 AM Sunday.
It noted the prosecution's submissions about the need to take Kumar to Mumbai and other parts of the national capital to collect evidence, which was not possible without the accused's custody.
"Admittedly, the case is at a nascent stage. Allegations made in the FIR are corroborated in her (Maliwal's) statement recorded by the magistrate on oath and further, it is again corroborated in the medico-legal case (MLC) of the victim or complainant," the court said.
The magistrate also observed, "I am aware of the view of constitutional courts that the opportunity must be given to the investigating agency to complete the investigation in order to reach the truth of the matter but at the same time the rights of the accused are also to be protected."
Asking the Investigating Officer to take Kumar into formal custody, the court directed his medical examination every 24 hours and said the investigating agency would not subject the accused to "any torture."
It also allowed Kumar to meet his advocate and wife for half an hour each during the police custody.
Kumar's application for providing requisite medicines was also allowed.
The proceedings which commenced around 9: 15 PM Saturday saw initial arguments by Srivastava following which the magistrate said, "I find force in the arguments of the APP (Additional Public Prosecutor) that there were sufficient grounds to arrest the accused without notice."
The prosecutor made several arguments, including those mentioned in the remand application and also that the "means or weapon" by which Kumar assaulted Maliwal had to be recovered.
The vehement counter-arguments by Kumar's counsels continued for more than one-and-a-half hours. One of his counsels, Rajiv Mohan, claimed that Maliwal had lodged the FIR "belatedly after deliberation and concoction."
The Delhi Police arrested Kumar earlier on Saturday and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming "infructuous" by a Delhi court.
