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High Noon Challenge, Lenovo Wants To Take Apple Down

By | August 22, 2011 | 2 comments
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China-based PC-maker Lenovo is heading for the tablet market with big dreams of doing what no other tablet maker has done so far; take the lead from Apple’s iPad.

Lenovo has been picking up steam in the PC market, out-pacing Acer as the third-largest manufacturer of desktop personal computers.

According to FT, Lenovo’s chief executive, Yang Yuanquing, has stated that the company, “[W]ill be one of the strongest in this area.” Just how they plan on closing the market share gap with Apple is a mystery, but reduced price tablets are on their minds.

Lenovo’s strategy will be to offer a multitude of tablets for every income bracket, including low-priced ones for low-income segments of the population. Currently, the company offers an attractive looking tablet Called IdeaPad Tablet K1 for $499. Tomorrow, Lenovo will release the ThinkPad tablet for $20 less. If the company thinks that a 4 percent price reduction is enough to attract bargain shoppers, they will be disappointed.

Evidence of the public’s desire to have top-quality tablets at rock-bottom prices can be seen with HP’s recent fire sale. The company liquidated approximately a half million tablets by dropping the price of their 16 and 32 GB TouchPads to $99 and $149 respectively. People don’t want a slightly less expensive tablet. Most will just opt to save their pennies and go for the iPad. What they will scramble to retail stores for is something that tablet makers just can’t produce with the cost of technology at its current rate.

Lenovo has the right idea, offer a low-priced tablet that a broader consumer base can afford and is willing to pay, but minimal price reductions are not enough. Tablet makers have to tighten the belt and take big profit hits if they want to make headway against Apple’s hold on the market.

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About Lory: Writer of all things app related, traveler of the space-time continuum, baker of really great cookies. Follow me @appaholik

  • unMicD

    Lenovo has been very open about what their plan is.  Provide many different tablets for different people with different budgets and different needs.  In their view that iPad is a premium consumer tablet(period).  The soon-to-arrive Thinkpad tablet is geared toward enterprise use in a way that makes RIM’s Playbook look like a kids’ toy by comparison.  Personally I’m skeptical whether the market is there to sustain a true enterprise tablet, but Lenovo via their affiliation with IBM is likely well-placed to test the waters.  The IdeaPad K1 was placed as a slightly cheaper consumer tablet compared the the iPad, and didn’t get a lot of traction – partly because of the price, not because it wasn’t enough cheaper than an iPad, but because it was anywhere from the same to slightly more expensive than similarly-equipped Android tablets (i.e. Asus Transformer, Acer Iconia), so it basically jumped into a saturated market and really didn’t do enough to distinguish itself.  An economy tablet is a reasonable next addition for Lenovo (admittedly the $400 price range is still to high, but if they could repackage the K1 as a $250 tablet they’d be in good shape).  Another direction might be to try to become the defacto tablet of choice for students (which the Thinkpad may lend itself well to with a view modifications).  Basically any niche that they can serve better than the iPad can is fair game.

  • Cybersed

    Yet another company that annouces an iPad killer… (yawn)