Source : The Jakarta Post

Among the world’s suppliers of computers, Lenovo seems to have failed to consistently maintain its presence in Indonesia in the past.

There were some intense marketing efforts, including a number of roadshows, but then the brand would fall into the background in a market so largely dominated by the two giants Acer and Hewlett-Packard.

But in the past few years, Lenovo has done a lot of preparation to launch a fresh attack on emerging markets, including Indonesia. Their logistic infrastructure has been strengthened, their service network is being established across the islands, and new stores are being opened. One notable new store is the Think Store in Mangga Dua, where ThinkPad lovers will be able to check out the full range of the latest offerings.

The most impressive is perhaps the range of products that this computer vendor is bringing to Indonesia. Last week, after a full-day event with its channels, I had the opportunity to interview Chen Shaopeng, Lenovo’s senior VP, and Howie Lau How Sin, the company’s GM and executive director for ASEAN, as well as a few other executives. I also had the chance to see and get my hands on some of the new products, which were either launched recently or were showcased as a soon-to-be-released product.

Here are the scoops: First, there was S10-3t, a netbook that could be converted to a tablet PC. Some may not really find this model and its sibling, the S10-3, overtly exciting, but both have great features such as VeriFace to replace the security password, location tool Maplife and instant-on that allows us to start working just seconds after we power the computer up. By the way, both of these Intel Atom N470 netbooks come with a whopping 320-GB hard disk.

And then there was the Skylight Smartbook that was designed quite tastefully. While most notebooks have four square corners, this one has rounded corners at the palm-rest. To be officially launched in April, this very light gadget can be viewed as a large smartphone. The casing is typical Lenovo, strong and sturdy.

And then there is the new ThinkPad Edge Series with a black, red or white top. ThinkPad fanatics, me included, may find this a bit hard to accept, as we always expect the great notebook lines to come in only box-like black casing.

The Edge Series is meant for the SMB segment. Too bad, some of the ThinkPad features that I adore, such as the enlarged Escape and Backspace keys, are not found in the Edge Series. But Lenovo promises that besides these, the notebooks will still share the legendary durability and reliability of earlier ThinkPads. This includes a spill-resistant keyboard, which now has a contemporary design.

One thing I love about the design of the new series is the glowing red dot on the ThinkPad logo. It tells us that the notebook is working. Lenovo has gotten rid of unnecessary indicators such as the one that tells us the hard disk is spinning. While we will not find the ThinkLight on the Edge Series, there is already a model that comes with a backlit keyboard.

I guess the freshest technology idea is found in the hybrid model, the IdeaPad U1. It can be viewed as one notebook with two processors, two batteries and two operating systems. If we want a tablet PC, we can remove the multi-touch screen from its shell. The tablet PC uses an ARM processor and runs a customized Skylight OS. If we want a notebook, just insert the tablet back into its shell and we have an Intel notebook with Windows OS. Not surprisingly, Lenovo won an award for this unique design during last January’s annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

What about the data? Not to worry, I was told. The two computers can be synced easily. Whatever we create on the tablet can be accessed by the full-featured notebook. The hybrid is a bit thicker and heavier than the mainstream thin and light category, but, hey, it is two computers in one. The highly glossy, red finish looks great and feels nice, too.

And there are the all-in-ones, which now have become a preferred choice compared with the box and monitor type. The all-in-one, which they call IdeaCenter, is somewhat like the iMac, in which the CPU is placed right behind the monitor or in the base. Lenovo has a series for home consumers and another for commercial users. The IdeaCenter A300 claims to be the thinnest all-in-one in the industry today, and has a 21.5-inch full-HD screen.

There were also Android-based smartphones on showcase, too. They were the first smartphones from Lenovo. One model that I liked was almost like the hybrid notebook. If we do not need the keypad, we can just take the screen part out of its shell and it becomes a touchscreen smartphone.

If we want to use the keypad — and I always want it — just place the screen back into the shell and we will have a keypad-equipped smartphone. The keypad also serves as a protective case. Another model, which I did not get to see, had a sliding keypad.

Lenovo now has around 4.3 percent of the Indonesian market, and it is aiming for 10 percent market share. One crucial question is how Lenovo is going to achieve it amid the price wars with Acer and
HP as the market leaders, and while the general image is that Lenovo has is priced slightly higher than the others.

They are aware of the situation, and therefore their answer to this is to bring a full range of products, from the highly affordable value-line to the top end such as the dual-screen ThinkPad W700ds.

I wish I had more space here to give you more details about the products. I just hope I will be able to test-drive some of the cool products soon and provide you with more information.

Source : The Jakarta Post