根據EETimes美國版的獨家消息，中國第二大智能手機品牌供貨商聯想(Lenovo)打算擴大投入芯片設計業(yè)務，鎖定智能手機/平板裝置應用領域。 過去十年來，聯想內部一直有個編制約10人左右的芯片設計團隊，來自產業(yè)界的消息來源指出，該公司現在正在招募芯片設計工程師，打算在今年中將該團隊擴充至100人左右的規(guī)模；該匿名消息來源指出，聯想將在分別在深圳與北京招募40與60名工程師。 針對以上消息，聯想并未有立即響應；而根據筆者分析，該公司此舉是希望能掌控自家智能手機與平板裝置的命運──就像是擁有芯片設計公司海思(HiSilicon)的華為(Huawei)那樣。 不同于三星(Samsung) 或蘋果(Apple)，聯想擁有一段為智能手機選擇不同應用處理器供貨商的坎坷過程；在2011年推出的聯想A60智能手機中，該公司采用的是聯發(fā)科 (MediaTek)的MT6573芯片，但2012年推出的LePhone K860產品，則是第一家采用三星電子Exynos 4四核心應用處理器的非三星手機廠商。 而聯想在今年稍早推出的5.5寸屏幕智能手機K900，則是采用了英特爾的第一款雙核心Atom芯片；該款Atom Z2580芯片號稱性能是英特爾單核心Medfield 芯片──應用于聯想一年前推出的K800手機──的一倍。 也許聯想曾經享受過這種可任意選擇市場上最佳應用處理器的自由，但根據消息來源指出，現實是殘酷的，因為三星電子拒絕再供應最新的Exynos應用處理器給這家中國競爭對手。

2012年中國智能手機市場前五大品牌市占率比較
Source：Strategy AnalyticsG15esmc

本文授權編譯自EE Times，版權所有，謝絕轉載 本文下一頁：聯想已經成為三星在中國的最大對手

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• 手機與平板MEMS運動傳感器主要買家排名，中國廠商合計第三
• 獨家報道：中國正通過品牌產品戰(zhàn)略崛起
• 2013智能手機市場，中興需慎防聯想奪位G15esmc

{pagination} 確實，在成長蓬勃的中國智能手機市場上，聯想已經成為三星的最大對手──在 2012年，三星在中國智能手機市場的占有率為17.7%，聯想與蘋果則分別為13.2%與11%。 在此同時，聯想藉由強化管理團隊陣容，為變成一家領導級消費性電子品牌做準備；這家排名全球第二大的PC品牌，在2月份時邀雅虎(Yahoo)共同創(chuàng)辦人楊 致遠(Jerry Yang)擔任該公司董事會觀察員(board observer)，接著又聘請ARM創(chuàng)辦人之一Tudor Brown擔任非執(zhí)行董事，為該公司產業(yè)老將顧問團又添一名成員。 聯想的百人芯片設計團隊將會在已經稍嫌擁擠的應用處理器市場激起什么漣漪，還有待時間觀察；而根據華為首席銷售官邵洋(Shao Yang)最近接受EETimes美國版專訪時的說法，擁有自家芯片設計部門對于一家手機廠商來說，是：“更有利于與其它半導體業(yè)者協(xié)商。” 本文授權編譯自EE Times，版權所有，謝絕轉載 編譯：Judith Cheng 參考英文原文：Exclusive: Lenovo to design own chips，by Junko Yoshida

相關閱讀：
• 手機與平板MEMS運動傳感器主要買家排名，中國廠商合計第三
• 獨家報道：中國正通過品牌產品戰(zhàn)略崛起
• 2013智能手機市場，中興需慎防聯想奪位G15esmc

{pagination} Exclusive: Lenovo to design own chips Junko Yoshida While beefing up its senior management team to prepare itself to become a leading consumer electronics vendor, Lenovo is growing its IC design team to about 100 engineers by mid this year. BEIJING, China– Lenovo, the second largest smartphone supplier in China, will get into the chip design business with a special focus on smartphones and tablets, EE Times has learned. The company, which has maintained a small IC design team consisting of about 10 people over the last decade, is now committed to expanding this team to about 100 engineers by the middle of this year, according to a China-based industry source with direct knowledge of Lenovo’s recruitment of chip designers. Lenovo will be hiring 40 engineers in Shenzhen area and 60 in Beijing, according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous. Lenovo, based in Beijing, did not immediately respond to questions about these plans. This initiative appears to be driven by the company’s desire to control its own destiny in smartphones and tablets--a la HiSilicon at Huawei. (HiSilicon is a chip division of Huawei.) Unlike Samsung or Apple, Lenovo has a checkered history of adopting different apps processors from a variety of suppliers for its smartphones. The company adopted MediaTek’s MT6573 in the Lenovo A60 smartphone in 2011, while it became the first company--outside Samsung --in 2012 to design in Samsung Electronics’ quad-core apps processor Exynos 4 in its LePhone K860. Lenovo, however, announced earlier this year a 5.5-inch smartphone, dubbed K900, by integrating Intel’s first dual-core Atom chip for phones. The Atom Z2580 is said to have roughly doubled the CPU performance of Intel’s single-core Medfield processor used in Lenovo’s K800 phone, which was introduced a year ago. While Lenovo might have been enjoying its freedom in choosing the best apps processor available on the market, reality bit hard, sources said, when Samsung Electronics refused to supply its newest version of the Exynos apps processor to the Chinese company. Market share of the top five vendors for China’s smartphone market in 2012 Source: Strategy Analytics · Indeed, on the growing Chinese smartphone market last year, Lenovo became Samsung’s biggest rival--with Samsung holding a 17.7 percent share, with Lenovo at 13.2 percent and Apple at 11 percent. Meanwhile, Lenovo has been beefing up its senior management team to prepare itself to become a leading consumer electronics vendor. The world's second-largest supplier of personal computers last month (February) named Jerry Yang, the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo, as a "board observer.” Further, Lenovo added Tudor Brown, one of the founders of ARM, as a non-executive director to Lenovo's roster of seasoned veterans. It’s far from clear if an internal group of mere 100 IC engineers can make a dent in the already crowded apps processor market. And yet, as Shao Yang, CMO of Huawei Device, recently said in an interview with EE Times, having a chip division of its own could help [the handset company] “negotiate better with other semiconductor companies.”