Lenovo, the manufacture of ThinkPad and IdeaPad range of notebook and desktop PCs plans to have six concepts stores plus 40 Multi-brand Corners in shopping malls and computer stores across Malaysia by the end of March, 2010, according to Eric Zhao, Lenovo Malaysia country manager for Consumer Business.

“Market analyst firm IDC sees very big potential in Malaysia's PC market which it expects to grow over the next five years, “ Zhao told the media at the launch of two new Lenovo concept stores in the Plaza Low Yat shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur on 16th July which was officiated by David Wong, chairman of the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (PIKOM).

“The Demand for PCs in Malaysia continues to be promising even in challenging economic times,” said Chen Xu Dong, Lenovo Group vice-president, Lenovo Strategy and Operation, Emerging Market Group.

These two stores are the first in Malaysia to feature Lenovo's global concept store designs, which include a consistent orange colour, open spaces plus other features which enable then to stand out in clutter environments such as PC malls.

At the time, Lenovo had a total of four concept stores, including the two new ones plus 10 Multi-brand Corners. The four concepts stores are all located in the Klang Valley, whilst the Multi-brand Corners – namely exclusive areas within large IT chains dedicated to Lenovo products -- were located in Penang, Johor Baru and in East Malaysia.

All Lenovo outlets are owned and run by partners, such as the TecAsia Group, hitherto known as  FTEC Resources, which owns and runs the two new concept stores in Plaza Low Yat.

“Besides expanding our retail outlets, Lenovo's other two strategic thrusts in Malaysia  are to strengthen our channels through new and existing partnerships and through bringing in new and innovative Lenovo products to Malaysia and altogether these will serve consumers and small-to-medium business in Malaysia,” said Howie Lau How Sin, Lenovo Singapore general manager and executive-director, ASEAN.

To help its channels, Lenovo extended its Business Partner Protection Programme from its Tier-1 partners to its Tier-2 partners and at the same time introduced its new Lenovo Growth Programme which offers the lowest entry levels into the business for its local partners and Lenovo is investing in training programmes, incentive schemes, seminars and other programmes for its partners.

Lenovo's global research and development centres in China, Japan and the United States have produced designs which have won it hundreds of technology and design awards and these are available in Malaysia as its Think and Idea range of products.

The Think range of notebooks are carried over from Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC division  and continue with the sober and serious dark colours for business users, whilst its Idea range, first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States in 2008 are aimed at consumers, hence they have bright and breezy colours, cutting-edge capabilities, transcendent design and are designed for mobility and the digital lifestyle with features such as face recognition, Dolby surround sound.

At the event, Lenovo launched its new IdeaPad U350 notebook, showcased its IdeaCentre 3000 C300 all-in-one deskptop and its IdeaPad S10-2 netbook and showcased assistance services such as system migration from PC to PC and system recovery and restoration of missiing files.