Lenovo has introduced yet another Android-based handset, the LePhone S760, which was unveiled today alongside the LePhone S2. The device integrates a single-core 1GHz processor, stepping down from the S2's 1.4GHz chip, though the 3.7-inch display is an AMOLED panel rather than a standard LCD. Both phones share a similar form, aside from the glossy backside featured on the S760.
Lenovo's IdeaPad and ThinkPad tablets were confirmed by company president Rory Read in an interview that also had Lenovo keeping out of the US smartphone race for now. Both of the tablets would have 10-inch screens, ship with Android 3, and cost between $450 to $900 depending on the model, he told Dow Jones. The IdeaPad K1 should be ready by July and could be followed by the pro-oriented ThinkPad edition as soon as August.
Lenovo COO Rory Read in an interview Thursday was optimistic for tablets. He predicted slates like the LePad would have 15 to 18 percent of the computer market in the next five years. Netbooks were on their way out, he argued to Forbes, in part because the category was being swallowed up as the computers got larger or faster.
Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhi in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland cast the new LePad tablet and LePhone as key to his company's survival against Apple. He viewed tablets and smartphones as essential since they would be the future of the computing business. Without a good offering, any company that couldn't stand up to the iPad and iPhone would be virtually non-existent, he explained to Bloomberg.
Lenovo on Tuesday signaled that it's developing a touch-only Android tablet. The LePad has few details but should be available by the end of 2010, according to the company's consumer group President Liu Jun. No details of American availability were given to IDG, but Lenovo may follow the path of the LePhone and concentrate on good sales in China before moving abroad.
