Silver lining in Lenovo sales amid dark clouds

Lenovo Group Ltd has found a silver lining in its ailing smartphone business, as sales of entry-level handsets in overseas markets remained vibrant during the past few quarters despite a slowdown in China.

The Beijing-based company was able to maintain its ranking as the fifth-largest vendor worldwide thanks to growing sales of affordable devices in India, the Middle East and other emerging markets.

Lenovo said strong growth in these markets helped it sell 16.2 million smartphones for the quarter that ended in June.