Can Kobe make Lenovo a champion in smartphone sales?

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is doing his best to turn Lenovo smartphone sales into a slam-dunk success in Asia as the world’s No. 2 PC maker aims to more than double global smartphone sales this year.

Bryant is the new pitchman for Lenovo’s latest smartphone, the K900, and he’s featured in advertising in Asia-focused sales pitches. 

Lenovo has yet begun smartphone sales in the U.S., but executives have said they plan to in the near future.

Right now, Lenovo remains focused on China, where it is No. 2 behind Samsung and ahead of Apple. It’s also slowly expanding sales in emerging markets, the latest push being focused on Africa.

And the company, which is diversifying away from PC sales as the global computer market slows, aims to more than double smartphone sales this current fiscal year with a target of 60 million. The fiscal year began April 1.

Liu Jun, a senior vice president with Lenovo, disclosed that figure, according to ChinaDaily.com. In fiscal 2012, Lenovo shipped 23.5 million phones, according to research firm IDC. ChinaDaily also noted that Lenovo plans to top Samsung in China, which is the world’s largest cellphone market, within two years.

Next Target: Africa

On Friday, Bloomberg news reported details about Lenovo’s next target, which is Africa. 

Sales will begin there before the end of the year, starting in Nigeria.

Lenovo, which operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville, picked Nigeria because, unlike in South Africa, it doesn’t have to work with local telecommunications companies in order to sell its phones, according to Graham Braum, general manager of Africa.

South Africa is Africa’s biggest economy while Nigeria is the second largest.

“Nigeria is coming towards the end of the year and then we will investigate the rest of Africa,” Braum said in an interview at the company’s offices in Johannesburg. “We’re trying to sell off the shelf. We’ve picked the open market.”

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with more than 160 million people, had about 113 million wireless subscribers at the end of 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The number of smartphone users is expected to grow to over 35 million by the end of 2017 from 5.6 million at end of last year, according to research by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Nigeria’s telecommunications companies, led by the local unit of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd, wield less power than operators in other African markets, making it easier and quicker for Lenovo to release its products, Braum said.

“If you look at South Africa, 99 percent of the business is done through the telcos and that’s a lot of work to do to launch in a telco-based economy,” he said. “Lead time is up to nine months to do all the planning, certification and you cannot align with one network.”

Lenovo may sell its smartphones across as many as six price bands in Nigeria and some could retail at about $500, Oliver Ebel, vice president and general manager of Lenovo Middle East and Africa, said in the same interview.

The next target will be Egypt, Ebel said.

[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out eight years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]