Lenovo Chris Frey

During a wide-ranging conversation, Frey told The VAR Guy that Lenovo will continue to innovate across all of its product platforms — though product rollouts will vary from region to region.

The conversation covered…

1. Tablets: Sure, the retail environment is very competitive for consumer tablets, Frey conceded. But he insisted that Lenovo has “sold a lot” of Ideapad Tablet K1s. “We met expectations and we’ll start to differentiate in the consumer market.” Still, Frey didn’t disclose actual sales volumes for the K1. On the commercial front, Frey said, Lenovo is seeing “significant traction” with the ThinkPad Tablet. He expects Ice Cream Sandwich — a Google Android update — plus Lenovo’s own security and manageability focus to drive further demand.

2. Smart Phones and TVs: Lenovo has a “significant” smart phone footprint in China and will converge that momentum with PCs in China. Lenovo will also make a smart TV push in China “in the foreseeable future,” he added. “As we integrate the four-screen strategy and show it in China, we’ll bring that around the world in emerging and maturing markets.” Frey declined to predict when such a push will reach North America.

3. Servers: Lenovo first launched SMB servers in North America in 2008. Since that time, Lenovo’s server efforts have been relatively quiet.  “North America is okay and growing; it’s growing on a small [sales] number right now. We’ve been focused on notebooks, desktops and then tablets. Throughout 2012, we’ll focus more and more on the server strategy. We will enter carefully and make sure we don’t create false expectations. We’re getting partner feedback on how to further enable our partners.”

Frey says both the four-screen strategy and the server strategy will tie back to Lenovo’s cloud strategy — which calls for secure endpoints that link into the cloud.

Even if cloud computing pressures on-premises server sales, Lenovo sees server opportunities ahead. “I believe in the server market, when you have 1 percent market share or less like we do, there’s an opportunity to enter if you do it in the right way. The opportunity for entry is still great. And the opportunity for us to grow with servers is still there.”

4. Partner Momentum With PCs, Notebooks: Frey noted that Lenovo continues to “move up” in market share, and “a lot of that is because of the channel. Our volumes are up 15 percent year to date in a flat market. We grew desktops twice as fast as notebooks in the channel. We’ve made our statement: The desktop isn’t dead. Our numbers show the desktop isn’t dead.”

5. The Quest for More Partners: Yes, Lenovo continues to recruit new partners — adding 30 percent more resellers year-over-year. But will all that partner recruitment hurt engagement rates and dilute Lenovo’s channel? Frey says no way. “We’re at an all-time high in terms of partner engagement. And those partners are reselling with us on a consistent basis.”

Sometime in 2012, it sounds like Lenovo will more aggressively promote servers to those partners. The VAR Guy will be watching to see if the server message catches on.