Telefónica sold 900,000 devices in Spain between January and August 2026, a 10% increase year on year, and the operator now wants a dedicated unit to push that growth further. The company has created a Hardware and Devices Division within its consumer business and appointed Alberto Ruano, currently General Manager of Lenovo for Spain and Portugal, to lead it from 1 October.

Ruano will report to Óscar Candiles, Chief Revenue Officer of Telefónica Spain, and join the company's Executive Committee. His remit covers the full devices value chain: product selection, supplier negotiations, commercial strategy, procurement, logistics, supply chain and financial performance.

The move consolidates a devices operation that has grown steadily at the Spanish incumbent but has so far sat inside the broader consumer business rather than operating as a standalone unit. Telefónica has used the same playbook before. Pay TV and digital services for business customers were each spun into focused divisions of their own, and executives credit that structure with giving those units room to scale.

A changing customer relationship

Borja Ochoa, Chairman and CEO of Telefónica Spain, framed the reorganisation around how customer demand has shifted beyond the core mobile handset business.

"Customers no longer come to Movistar solely for a mobile phone. They come for the family television, a tablet for their children, a laptop for working from home or the smartwatch they use when they go for a run," Ochoa said. "That shift is already reflected in our results."

He positioned the operator's ambition in expansive terms: "We embrace the challenge of becoming the leading gateway to digital technologies for citizens, offering the broadest and most comprehensive range of devices available. We know how to bring valuable services closer to people: we have already done so with television in the home. We now want to do the same with devices."

That framing echoes a strategy European operators have pursued for years with mixed results: converting network relationships into retail footholds in consumer electronics. Telefónica argues its Movistar brand gives it an advantage incumbents in other retail segments lack — a daily, billed relationship with millions of households.

"That is why we are giving this business its own unit, its own team and its own ambition," Ochoa said of the appointment. "It is also why we have chosen someone like Alberto. Few people know this industry as well as he does. He has led two of the world's leading technology brands in Spain and understands exactly what customers expect when they purchase a device."

The vendor-side hire

Ruano's background sits on the supply side of the device market rather than the operator side. His arrival brings procurement and vendor-negotiation experience to a division whose success will depend heavily on margins in a hardware category where European telcos have historically struggled to make money.

He was direct about the asset he intends to leverage. "Movistar has a unique asset: a daily relationship with millions of households and businesses that trust the brand," Ruano said. "My challenge is to make that relationship the best gateway to technology for all of them, providing the right products, under the best conditions, exactly when they need them."

Commercial logic, not just marketing

The numbers behind the decision are concrete. The 900,000 devices sold in the first eight months of 2026 represent a double-digit growth rate in a Spanish handset market that is broadly flat, which suggests Telefónica is gaining share in adjacent categories — tablets, laptops and wearables — rather than riding market growth.

Whether a standalone division can convert that volume into meaningful revenue contribution remains the open question. Device sales at operators tend to be low-margin and subsidy-heavy, and Telefónica has not disclosed revenue or profitability figures for the business. The company has, however, demonstrated with pay TV that a focused unit backed by an executive committee seat can become a strategic pillar rather than an add-on.

Ruano takes up the role on 1 October, with his first priorities spanning supplier terms and the commercial strategy heading into the peak year-end shopping season.