Top Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo Group will start to sell its namesake personal computers outside China in the first quarter of next year as part of its long-term plan to build the world's leading PC brand, its chief executive told Reuters.

Lenovo's PC shipments in China were three times those of its closest rival in the second quarter, but it has only recently broken into the international market in a big way, with its $1.25 billion acquisition of International Business Machines Corp.'s PC unit.

Lenovo will make IBM's flagship Thinkpad laptops available in Lenovo stores shortly. The acquisition has made it the third-biggest global PC vendor behind Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

The company spends 1.5 percent of its revenue on research, about twice the standard rate for the industry. It has plans to set up research centers in North Carolina and Beijing.

Cross-borders mergers are notoriously difficult to carry out. The Lenovo-IBM deal is particularly challenging because the drastic difference between East and West cultures.

IBM has used to think globally, but Lenovo makes decisions that target specific customers.  "Learn More"