Lenovo A526 with quad-core CPU launched for Rs 9,499

The Lenovo A526 doesn’t follow the ‘phablet’ trend like most of the budget devices these days, and comes equipped with a 4.5-inch display with WVGA resolution. It runs Android Jelly Bean, and comes loaded with a range of premium Doit apps from Lenovo that allow users to share data with friends using Shareit, speed up the device using Secureit, and sync contacts seamlessly using Syncit.


The Lenovo A526 comes powered by a 1.3 GHz MT6582M quad-core processor, coupled with 1GB of RAM. Along with 4GB onboard storage, the device supports up to 32GB expandable memory via microSD card slot. The dual-SIM smartphone also supports 3G as well as Wi-Fi.


It comes fitted with a 5-megapixel rear snapper and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. All of this is fuelled by a Li-Po 2000 mAh battery.


Last month, the company had launched its high-end Vibe Z in the Indian market priced at Rs 34,999. The Vibe Z is a relatively cheaper Snapdragon 800-powered smartphone in the market and its closest competition is the Google Nexus 5. Some of its features include 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 Full HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display, 13-megapixel primary camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a 3000mAh battery.

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Lenovo creates a big mobile buzz

It’s known in trade circles as the great Chinese invasion. We are referring to the flight of numerous mobile handset makers from mainland China—Gionee, Huawei, Oppo, Lenovo, ZTE—to grab large opportunities in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market. Samsung might be the most popular smartphone brand here, facing stiff competition from some of the homegrown brands such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, but it is the Chinese brands who seem to be capitalising on the strong customer demand for advanced touchscreen phones with faster processor, better camera with improved picture quality and long-lasting battery life at lower prices.

In particular, the $34-billion Beijing-headquartered Lenovo (another HQ is in Morrisville, North Carolina, US), which wants to be known as a PC+ brand in the marketplace. In a short span, it has managed to stand out in the domestic market with its aggressive business strategy in order to drive revenues in what it calls the PC+ segment comprising smartphones, tablets and convertibles. It goes without saying that smartphones are integral to its overall growth strategy.

Lenovo has put together a senior management team well versed with the Indian market, introduced a slew of mobile phones targeting the entire spectrum of the market—top level, premium segment, middle segment and the entry-level segment—and launched a focused branding and marketing exercise to strengthen its market share in India. The net result: company officials claim that Lenovo smartphones have been growing 100% quarter on quarter in India when the market is growing 15-20% in the same time period.

Lenovo is the world’s number one PC company, number two PC + tablet maker and number three smart connected device maker. It purchased its PC business from IBM in 2005, and has gone on to create a continually successful line of ThinkPad laptops from it. Recently, Lenovo announced that it will buy Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion in a mixture of cash and stock. It will give the Chinese smartphone manufacturer a major presence in the US market and within a year of the Motorola acquisition, Lenovo expects to sell 100 million smartphones worldwide. In 2013, Lenovo shipped an estimated 45 million smartphones, a 90% growth from the previous year.


Before we delve into the business strategy being deployed by Lenovo to capture people’s minds and hearts here, first a quick look at some of the striking trends from the country’s mobile landscape. According to recent IDC findings, the total shipments for smartphones in 2013 was 44 million compared to 16.2 million in 2012 with a growth of 175% year-on-year. A Gartner report reveals that globally, 53.6% of mobile phones sold in 2013 were smartphones. That’s a total of 986 million units, up 42.3% year-on-year. In India too, 2013 witnessed the first time decline in growth of feature phones and this trend is going to further sharpen in 2014 as the primary focus of the industry as well as consumers would remain around the smartphones.

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Lenovo P780: A versatile workhorse with great looks

Smartphones have been advancing over the years and cost of owning one has also come down in recent times. But even then, there are some aspects which manufacturers have overlooked, and one of them is the battery life. This is where Lenovo has taken its stand and introduced its P780 smartphone, which like all other brands in the market comes with competent hardware, but refreshingly loaded with a powerful long lasting battery unit.

Getting to know : Lenovo P780 smartphone packs 5-inch HD display, running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean version, the very common Mediatek quad-core chipset along with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB expandable storage. With dual-SIM (GSM+CDMA) option, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS among others, the P780 also doubles up as a charging unit for other devices, thanks to the large sized 4000 mAh battery that is fitted in the phone. Eight MP rear and VGA front cameras complete the hardware dynamics of the P780. Weighing at 176 grams, the P780 is more in tune with the Note 2 in terms of size, ease of carrying but then extra battery life is always a good thing to have.


How does it fair? : P780 has all the Lenovo attributes—well built, simple and not shimmery. The display covers the major part on the front outlined by the bezel, while the rear cover is mix of solid metallic finish. Overall, the look of P780 has nothing to talk about or nothing to complain. The HD display is of standard quality being used by brands these days in the R18,000 pricing slab without the glaring omission of a Corning Glass material, which is a big miss. The raw performance of P780 is more matched with the Canvas HD, Xolo Q Series and other mid-segment devices but the only stand out point for Lenovo is the 4000 mAh battery, a size which is more recognised with tablets than smartphones.

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Lenovo to launch Rs 5000 Android smartphone in India, to sell 1 million handsets

The Chinese tech major Lenovo is all set to launch Rs 5000 Android smartphones in India as it plan to sell 1 million handsets here in the local market


Indian smartphone market is galloping at furious speed and it is needless to say that every smartphone manufacturing company worth its salt is betting big on the Indian smartphone market. The country has become essential for many smartphone companies because of several reasons.


And the most important reason of them all is the fact that many developed countries’ handset market has become saturated and to continue their growth they need to look for elsewhere. And here India comes handy for all these companies.

This is the reason that even companies like Apple that didn’t count India their focus market are now working overtime to get a slice of the market pretty fast. And because of the fact that the smartphone market is still in its infancy here with very low penetration in the market they are able to see their revenue multiply in a very short time. Apple’s revenue in the country has gone up by 400 percent in the last few months and it will see a steady rise in the days to come too.

Now the biggest PC and laptop manufacturer in the world Lenove is working hard to become an important player in India’s smartphone market. The Chinese company has more than 14 percent smartphone market share in China and it has launched as many as six handsets in the Indian market in one go.

Now after introducing as many as six top of the line handsets in the Indian market, the Chinese smartphone giant is working hard to come with sub-Rs 5000 smarphone in the Indian market. The Chinese smartphone /PC manufacturer is reportedly planning to sell as many as one million smartphones in India this year alone is also planning to expand its partnership with distributors like Ingram, Advanced Computer and Redington for a presence in tier-II and III cities in the country. And there are signs that its plan may succeed in the days to come.

The company has just launched Lenovo K900, its top of the line handset in the Indian market at very affordable price. The Lenovo phablet is sporting a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a whopping resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels at 401-ppi. The smartphone outdoes majority of other FullHD phones with its huge display, which might have been realized with a purpose to put it as a rival to the Samsung Note. The Lenovo device is getting juice from quality innards also. Yes, it is integrating a much-touted Intel Atom Z2580-based 2GHz dual core CPU. It gets extra power from a PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 2GB of RAM.


The handset is set to give tough competition to the present market leaders like Galaxy S4 and HTC One besides others for being the best and very affordable. For storing data, you have an internal memory capacity of 16GB that, if you wish, can be increased up to 32GB via microSD cards. Amazingly, it is to preload Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the latest version of the Android in market. Following other advanced FullHD handsets, the K900 mounts a heavy 13MP rear camera, which along with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus and face detection is something really nice. The secondary camera of the phone is a 2MP unit.

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Lenovo plans to launch sub-Rs 5,000 smartphone

With revenues from personal computers (PC) shrinking, Lenovo is increasingly looking to make up with higher smartphone sales.

The company, which wants to sell one million smartphones in India this year, is planning to bring in devices priced below Rs 5,000.

Nick Reynolds, Executive Director – Worldwide Product Marketing, Lenovo, told Business Line: “We are watching the space because we know there are people who are upgrading from feature phones to smartphones, and that is a big trend in emerging markets today.”

FALLING PC BUSINESS

He said the company is looking at various price points for its smartphones. Lenovo sells around 60 different models in China and as its business grows here, it will bring in more models. According to independent research and marketing firm IDC, globally 349 million PCs were shipped in 2012 compared with 363 million in 2011. It expects the numbers to go down further by around 8 per cent this year.

Though the India numbers grew by 3.5 per cent to 11 million PCs in 2012 compared with 2011, the market was driven by special projects such as those for Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu and a spurt in consumer demand for notebooks.

Lenovo said that as the PC market has been a challenge it would drive multi-mode devices such as hybrid and touch devices.

TAKING ON HEAVYWEIGHTS

Reynolds said Lenovo will make a mark in the smartphones segment, just as it did with its PCs. But Lenovo’s challenge is to compete with players such as Samsung and Nokia that have been in the phone segment since much earlier.

To increase the visibility of Lenovo products, especially phones and tablets, Lenovo India will invest good money in advertising and marketing.

Lenovo will also expand its partnership with existing partners such as Ingram, Advanced Computer and Redington for a presence in tier-II and -III cities.

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Lenovo K900 Launched at Rs 32,999: 5 High End Rivals At Similar Price

Lenovo, the Japanese PC maker who has been the leader all through, recently forayed in the mobile business to test its luck. Looks like, the manufacturer is having some high hopes, when it comes to the Indian market as only yesterday, Lenovo launched, not one, not two but six smartphones in the country. 

Namely, K900, P780, S920, S820, A706 and A390, these smartphones range between Rs 8,689 to Rs 32,999 and all have a common feature of internal storage capacity of 4 GB which is expandable up to 32GB via microSD. Out of all, K900 has been capturing a lot of spotlight, all credit goes to its 2GHz processor, 6.9mm thickness and out-of-the-box looks. 

Relatively, Lenovo K900 has now become one of the many competitors in the smartphone arena of India priced at Rs. 32,999. Talking about the specs, the K900 has: Display The K900 comes with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with HD display and 16M colors with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. 

The screen offers a pixel density of 401 ppi. It has a Gorilla Glass 2 to protect the screen from scratches. Camera On the camera front, the k900 has a 13 megapixel rear camera with Sony Exmor BSI sensor. The camera also has autofocus and LED flash. 


The front facing camera consist of 2 megapixel for video calling. Processor, OS and RAM Lenovo K900 runs on Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean) powered by a dual-core 2 GHz processor and an Intel Atom Z2580 chipset along with Intel Hyper-Threading technology. The powerful K900 is also supported by 2GB RAM. Connectivity Connectivity options in K900 are 2G, 3G, GPRS, EDGE, WLAN, WiFi, Bluetooth and microUSB v2.0. Storage and battery The K900 comes with a comes with a stunning 16GB internal storage capacity which can be expanded to 32 GB via microSD. 


The 5.5 inch phablet is powered by non-removable Li-Ion 2500 mAh battery. Price and availability Priced at Rs 32,999, the Lenovo K900 smartphone will be available at all Lenovo retail stores across India from July 2013. The Lenovo IdeaPhone K900 has been priced aggressively at Rs. 32,999, competing against the other high end devices such as HTC Butterfly, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One S, Nokia Lumia 920 and LG Optimus G E975. 


The K900 phablet is the latest of them all making the competition even more tougher. Not to mention the other 5 devices which will also impact the rivalry between mid to low range devices in the Indian market. However, here are the number of devices with specifications and features that fall under the same price to that of K900.

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Lenovo RCOM To Launch 5 Budget Handset in India in 2013

RCOM is set to launch a plethora of budget smartphones this year in the Indian market. A new deal has been signed with world's No.1 PC maker, Lenovo which marks the coming of ultra- low Android powered handsets in India. Most of the upcoming handsets sell under Lenovo RCOM agreement would be priced under Rs. 8,000. The expected date of the arrival of these low-cost handsets is pegged at around March of this year.

"This is an important step in redefining India's CDMA device ecosystem. In the next six months, we plan to launch 4-5 more smartphones and tablets, which will be priced attractively to have a full bouquet of smart devices," RCom President and CEO (Wireless Business) Gurdeep Singh told reporters here.


As per the spokesperson at RCOM - the handsets will be dual- SIM capable, out of which, few will be tied to home network (in case of CDMA network). The new line-up of handsets will also arrive in GSM mode as well. The handsets launched under the joint collaboration come surprisingly with dual-core processor, and will reportedly running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

RCOM may unveil more handsets in the month of September to expand its portfolio with world's No.1 PC maker. It is also being said that the telecom giant will be stepping forward in launching Lenovo - branded tablet (CDMA/GSM capable) in the coming months.


Unlike America where a locked device is a popular medium considering the relaxation given by the telephone operator whereas in India, the situation is entirely opposite. The company hopes to get a sizable amount of new subscriber to get benefitted with their new scheme.


The coming of Lenovo into the Indian market is a bold step all together for a PC maker who has just taken a baby step towards "connected devices". The Indian handset market is already crowded with known and unknown players and with the coming of Chinese PC giant - there will be an upsurge in the market penetration of smartphones- the fastest segment at the moment.

It's not that the Chinese PC maker have won the battle; the maker last year launched five Android-powered handsets. And one of them was a quad-core one. Looks like, the company still have a long way to crack the ‘Indian' way of cracking a code.


This year the Chinese brigade is actively promoting their handsets around the world. From Huawei to ZTE to Lenovo; most of these brands are looking for new markets. This year Lenovo launched a slew of handsets at Consumer Electronics Show, held at Las Vegas, 2013. Take for instance, Huawei, stunned crazy fans with - Ascend Mate , a 6.1 -inch phablet. Even ZTE managed to enthrall consumers with - Grand S, a 5-inch 1080pHD monster.

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