Lenovo's breaking with the recent trend of downbeat financial news by reporting an 88 percent improvement in its profits for the second quarter of 2011. The three-month period ending on September 30th saw Lenovo in the black to the tune of $144 million, which nearly doubles last year's $77 million. Moreover, the company's broken its quarterly record for total sales, with a new $7.8 billion mark, and notes a 35.8 percent rise in PC shipments year-on-year.

Lenovo is now the world's second biggest PC maker, having recently overtaken Dell, and much of its current strength can be attributed to success in its homeland of China. 40.8 percent of global Lenovo sales occur in its home nation, where it's the leader in market share with 31.5 percent. According to the company's data, China has now surpassed the USA as the world's biggest buyer of PCs, though Lenovo's growth is actually more pronounced in so-called mature markets (western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand): its shipments there are up 54.5 percent year-on-year.

One other bit of news coming out of Lenovo HQ today is that Liu Chuanzhi, the company's chairman, is stepping down from his position and will be replaced by Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing. That's not expected to scupper the current prosperity of the company, partly because the chairman role is less critical to direction than the CEO post and partly because Yuanqing, who'll maintain his Chief Exec duties, isn't expected to make any significant alterations to the way Lenovo is run.