text: Lenovo has assembled a team of senior managers familiar with the Indian market, launched mobile phones at all price points there, and worked on branding to build market share. As of February 2014, Lenovo claims that its sales of smartphones in India have been increasing 100% per quarter while the market is only growing 15–20% over the same period. Lenovo did marketing tests of its smartphones in November 2012 in Gujarat and some southern cities, where Lenovo already had a strong presence. Lenovo's strategy has been to create awareness, maintain a broad selection of phones at all price points, and develop distribution networks. Lenovo partnered with two national distributors and over 100 local distributors. As of February 2014, more than 7,000 retail outlets in India sold Lenovo smartphones. Lenovo has also partnered with HCL in order to set up 250 service centres in 110 cities.
  In India, Lenovo grants distributors exclusive territories but allows them to sell computers from other companies. Lenovo uses its close relationships with distributors to gain market intelligence and speed up product development.
  Lenovo reported a year-on-year increase of about 951% in tablet sales in India for the first quarter of 2014. Canalys, a market research firm, said Lenovo took market share away from Apple and Samsung in the country.
  Africa
  Lenovo first started doing business in South Africa, establishing a sales office, and then expanded to East African markets such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda. West Africa followed when Lenovo set-up a Nigerian legal office and then expanded to Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.
  According to Lenovo's general manager for Africa, Graham Braum, Lenovo's strategy is to put "great emphasis on products that sell well in Africa" and roll out "products alongside different African governments' rolling out of wireless technology". Products such as the Lenovo Yoga series are popular in Africa because of their long battery life, as many areas have unreliable electrical supply. Other popular products include the Lenovo netbooks, which were introduced in 2008.