14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Lenovo Group Ltd. launched its LePhone mobile phone on the Chinese market, the company's handset powered by Google's Android operating system. The Chinese computer maker is aiming at expanding its reach to the mobile Internet services area, and the launch of LePhone is one step the company makes in this direction.
According to a recent article on the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo hopes that 10 to 20 percent of its revenues will come from the mobile Internet services within five years. Lenovo Chief Operating Officer Rory Read said at the handset's launch that the company's phones should perform better on the market than Research In Motion's BlackBerry handsets, which does not enjoy a strong position on the market in China.
Lenovo's phones are set to prove a great option for both the enterprise and consumer markets. According to the company, its handsets will boast support for all three 3G wireless standards available in China at the moment, including the locally developed standard TD-SCDMA. The computer maker expects to sell millions of its mobile phones within five years, and to ship tens of millions after that. Currently, the company's revenues from the mobile Internet are in the single digit area.
Announced officially during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early 2010, the Lenovo LePhone comes to the market with Google's Android 2.1 operating system version on board (though with heavy customizations attached to it). The phone boasts a large AMOLED touchscreen display, and comes with a great deal of user interface features, aimed at offering an enhanced experience to its owners.
The computer maker reportedly plans the launch of its new Lenovo LePhone in other markets too, though it still remains to be seen which countries will receive it. At the same time, it should be interesting to see whether the current customizations of the Android OS on LePhone are to be included in the package on other markets too, so stay tuned for more details on the matter.