Quiz Of The Week: The Rise of Lenovo

Thirty years ago, Lenovo was founded in a tiny guard shack by scientists at a Chinese government institution. In the past week it agreed to buy IBM servers and Motorola’s phones, confirming it as a tech colossus ready for world expansion.

Lenovo was little known outside China until it bought IBM’s PC business in 2005, but since then it has expanded and kept pace with the market for PCs and tablets, while expanding into phones and servers. This week’s acquisitions give it the brands it needs to expand faster, and as we celebrate Chinese new year, our quiz this week takes a look at Lenovo’s history.

Lenovo rising

It took the founders of Lenovo a while to realise that they were capable of building technology to compete with the West, but once they made that leap, they had a huge domestic market to exploit, and went from strength to strength.

Insiders say the absorption of IBM’s PC business nearly destroyed the company, but big changes allowed it to benefit from both cultures, and eventually dispense with the IBM brand on its ThinkPads.

A series of other joint ventures kept Lenovo on the world stage, but this week’s acquisitions mark the moment when the company stepped up and looked for a starring role.

Seems to us that now is the time to take a look at the history of this Chinese tech giant.

Try our Lenovo quiz!

And if you like it, try some of our others…