For the past two years, I have seen Lenovo transform itself into a global technology brand to become the world’s No.1 PC vendor. But the company’s strength is not just in PCs; in fact, Lenovo has been lately posing a challenge to well-established smartphone and tablet players. The Chinese giant has been grabbing market share left, right and centre from Apple, Samsung, LG and others.
Lenovo’s marketing and PR has been quite visible, especially in the Middle East, and it is safe to say that Lenovo has singlehandedly changed the perception of Chinese technology products, worldwide and in the region.
We’ve attended several Lenovo press events in Dubai and if we took just one thing from these events and from Oliver Ebel, Lenovo MEA VP and GM, it’s that innovation is truly in Lenovo’s DNA. From the ThinkPad X1 Carbon to the YOGA, the world’s first 360-degree convertible, and to its unique Yoga Tablet and VIBE smartphone lines, innovation is not just a cliché PR term for Lenovo. Well, at least that’s what we thought…
Enter Sisley, AKA the S90 smartphone, AKA the iPhone 6 wannabe. (See the story we ran on November 5th)
When we reached out to Lenovo for a comment and they sent us this statement:
While there are external similarities, the Lenovo S90 smartphone has been part of Lenovo’s long-term product roadmap. Considering the product design lifecycle of any smartphone – at least a year in planning and prototyping – it’s not possible to copy a design so quickly. Also, there are several differences in the S90 specs and internal design.”
While many people may not believe that this was just a coincident, we were ready to give Lenovo the benefit of the doubt until we saw the marketing visuals of the S90 which were the exact copy of the iPhone 6’s visuals.
Why, Lenovo? Why tarnish your reputation and all those years of innovations with this snafu? Why would you make people want to believe that Lenovo is not a premium brand but a “knockoff” you can get at the dragon mart?
Did you really have to launch the S90? Will the S90 catapult you from No.3 to No.1 in smartphones? We doubt it will have this impact. The only impact it will have is change the positive perception, which you worked really hard on, into a negative one.
We would like to think the S90 is a practical joke Lenovo’s playing on us or if not, a big mistake that Lenovo will soon realize and acknowledge. We would also like to think that whoever was responsible for the design of the S90 does not deserve to remain with an innovative company like Lenovo.
We sincerely hope this is the only “coincident” in the company’s future.
Lenovo launched the S90 in China. No word yet if the device will be coming to the Middle East.
Share with us your thoughts on Lenovo and S90 in the comments section below.
Lenovo on Thursday announced its Q2 FY 14/15 earnings of US$262 million and US$10.5 billion in revenue, achieving record high PC market share of nearly 20%. The company also became No.1 in the PC+Tablet category for the first time. It sold a record 35.6 million smartphones, PCs and tablets, almost 5 devices per second.
