Lenovo may increase presence in the West, says analyst

The deal with NEC will see economies of scale and lower prices

The joint venture between NEC and Lenovo will have implications outside of the companies' home countries, Japan and China.

The two have teamed up to offer more innovative products that are faster to market, more attuned to the needs of the Japanese people and more competitively priced.

"The deal is very strongly focused on Japan, there's no doubt. But there are hints that the deal could have wider ramifications," said Leslie Fiering, research vice-president at Gartner.

The resulting economies of scale for Lenovo could well translate to lower costs meaning lower prices are passed on to their customers, Fiering said.

While few details of the deal have been made explicit, Fiering suggested that it is likely that Lenovo will extend the deal.

One possible way is to provide a PC services division to help Japanese companies sell to countries outside of Japan. It may look to sell NEC's servers in other markets too.

"If Lenovo can compete on pricing and servers, it would see its position strengthened. And the deal has served as the publicity that Lenovo needed - it is a viable growing company."

Lenova is the fourth biggest manufacturer of PCs after HP, Dell and Acer.