Lenovo to seek partners for U.S. growth

Lenovo has operated as a lone wolf in China, where the company is based, by building hardware that runs its uniquely designed software. At the International Consumer Electronics show this week, Lenovo launched a cloud service in China, similar to Apple's iCloud, that will keep all of its devices in sync.

Lenovo expects to continue using Microsoft's Windows on its computers, and Google's Android on its tablets and smartphones, Yuanqing said. Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft may try to court the Chinese electronics giant to help with its U.S. mobile efforts, nevertheless.

In the U.S., Lenovo is barely a top-five PC manufacturer, nevertheless it's a solid No. 2 globally. Its trio of tablets, which are all based on Android, haven't sold particularly so then in the United States.

Lenovo Group has grown significantly in the U.S. in the last few years thanks to its aggressive pricing and the 2005 acquisition of International Business Machines' PC division, which has catapulted Lenovo's sales to corporations.

U.S. retailers have recommended that Lenovo should price its computers $50 below competitors' comparable systems, advice the company has heeded because it hasn't achieved a strong brand in America, Yuanqing said. Pinching pennies delays the U.S. expansion because Lenovo can't accumulate enough profit to fund development in other areas like smartphones or TVs, he said.

Lenovo and Sony, which has long been a proponent of selling multiple devices, define the four primary screens in the consumer electronics world as the PC, smartphone, tablet and television.

Lenovo will release its fourth screen, a connected TV set, in China. It has gotten some buzz because its software is based on the latest version of Android, heavily modified by Lenovo's programmers, or rather than on Google TV. On Lenovo's platforms, Google does not have the ability to control content in the way it does on a Google TV set, like those made by Samsung, Sony and Vizio.

TV or phone to the United States

Before it brings a TV or phone to the United States, Lenovo will focus on improving its brand through PCs, and on building relationships with U.S. cellular carriers and retailers, Yuanqing said.