Lenovo to split into Lenovo Business Group and Think Business Group, effective in April

Lenovo's done pretty well since its acquisition of IBM's personal computer business in 2005, but in an internal e-mail earlier today, CEO Yang Yuanqing admitted that despite some attempt, the Lenovo brand is still only playing well in the mainstream and low-end markets; whereas the Think brand is his company's best asset in the high-end market, and that it is the only brand that can compete with Apple in the high-end market. For the sake of better brand positioning and better efficiency, Yang announced in the same e-mail that his company will split into two new groups: Lenovo Business Group (LBG) and Think Business Group (TBG).

Effective from April 1st, LBG will be headed by Senior Vice President (Mobile Internet Digital Home) Liu Jun to focus on mainstream consumer and business desktops, laptops, and tablets, as well as smartphones and smart TVs. On the other side of the fence, TBG will be led by Senior Vice President (Product Group) Dr. Peter Hortensius to better establish the business-friendly Think brand in the consumer market, as well as continuing to stay ahead of the game in the global commercial business. Yang also pointed out that the recently created enterprise business team and workstation team will be part of TBG.

It'll be a while before we see the fruit of Lenovo's restructure, but it'll sure be interesting to come back to this in a year's time. Alas, we're now further away from ever seeing a ThinkPhone.