Lenovo Group plans to enter the tablet wars in 2011, with the LePad, according to the computer maker’s CEO. Lenovo joins a growing number of companies, including Dell, Research in Motion and Samsung hoping to wrest control from Apple’s iPad.
In an interview, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said the LePad would launch first in China in early 2011 and later the same year in the United States. While many iPad rivals have announced sub-$500 prices, Lenovo has yet to announce a price for its entry. Earlier this year, Lenovo launched LePhone in China, a handset it hopes will spearhead its goal for a greater stake in mobile computing. The company would like 10 percent to 20 percent of its revenue to come from mobile Internet products. To that end, LePad will be compatible with an iTunes-like application download store operated by Lenovo.
Currently the fourth-largest PC maker measured by shipments, Now sitting behind HP, Dell, and Acer, Lenovo’s CEO wants to become the top global PC maker, although he gave the Wall Street Journal no timeframe for such a move.
Lenovo is just the latest PC maker to introduce a tablet. Already, Dell has its five-inch Streak, Samsung has deals with carriers for its Galaxy Tab, and RIM plans to launch its PlayBook in early 2011.
[Barron’s, Wall Street Journal]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
