Pentagon says it didn't buy 80,000 new BlackBerry phones

Lenovo's third-quarter earnings were buoyed by its growing PC market share.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Lenovo Group announced Wednesday that its third-quarter net profit rose 29 percent from a year earlier after expanding its lead in PC market share.

The Chinese electronics giant reported that its net profit in the quarter ending December 31 grew to $265.3 million from $204.9 million a year earlier, beating the $243 million average analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected. The company's revenue grew 15 percent to $10.8 billion from $9.36 billion in the year-ago period, the first time it recorded $10 billion in sales.

Lenovo reported that it shipped 15.3 million PCs in its fiscal third quarter, giving it a quarterly market share of 18.5 percent, an increase of 2.4 percent. Market researcher Gartner reported last month that Lenovo held onto its lead in the PC sector by 6.6 percent to capture 18.1 percent of the market share in the fourth quarter of 2013.

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Reflecting a two-year slide in global PC sales, Lenovo reported Wednesday that it shipped 17.3 million smartphones and tablets in the third quarter, surpassing the 15.3 million PC units shipped in the period. The company reported capturing 4.7 percent of the smartphone market as its shipments of the devices rose 47 percent to a record 13.9 million units in the quarter. Lenovo tablet shipments rose 300 percent year over year to 3.4 million units, largely on the launch of the 13-inch IdeaPad Yoga.

As the market for PCs continues to erode, Lenovo is turning its attention to the smartphone and server markets. Last month, the company announced its intention to buy Motorola from Googlefor $2.91 billion and pay $2.3 billion for IBM's x86 server business.