MANILA, Philippines — Lenovo is proving to be a strong contender willing to do everything to gain the coveted top spot in the PC market as it headlines its efforts with the local release of the IdeaPad Yoga, a 13-inch ultrabook that bends over backwards – literally — to become a tablet.
Lenovo Philippines Country Manager Vicky Agorrilla said the IdeaPad Yoga will be the company’s ticket to finally and officially claiming the number one spot in global PC sales, stealing the throne from erstwhile market leader Hewlett-Packard.
“Our claim to being number one is marked by 12 consecutive quarters of growth in an industry that has, for the last quarter, fallen by about 8 percent,” Agorrilla told the local technology press during the launch of the IdeaPad Yoga in the Philippines.
In October, research firm Gartner already declared China’s Lenovo as the number one vendor of PCs in the world with 15.7 percent market share from shipping an estimated 13.77 million units globally during the third quarter of the year, beating, HP’s 15.5 percent share.
Rival research house IDC has yet to award the top spot to Lenovo, but in the same quarter noted that the company is just 0.2 percentage points away from the US’s HP.
Agorrilla admitted that the overall PC industry outlook has been quite dim in the past year, overshadowed by newer devices such as smartphones and tablets as exasperated consumers quit holding off for the coming of Windows 8.
“We all know there’s a temporary slowdown in the market, but we also know that the PC is revolutionizing, and it is turning into many different things,” she said.
Chief of these transformations is the introduction of “transformable” PCs, or notebooks that can be used both as a PC and a tablet, thanks to the update to Microsoft’s operating system that allows for better touch input during usage.
In this front, Lenovo is pitting the 13-incher IdeaPad Yoga against similarly positioned notebooks by other vendors, including the XPS 12 from Dell and the Taichi from Asus, as it jockeys for the top PC crown.
Unique about the IdeaPad Yoga is its “revolutionary hinge,” which allows the display to move up to 360 degrees, turning the whole unit into a handy tablet computer.
Powered by Intel’s Core i5 processor, the IdeaPad Yoga runs the latest version of Windows 8 in a slim 16.9-millimeter frame and a battery life that lasts for as much as eight hours.
“With the launch of Windows 8 and Intel’s ultrabook technology, now is the right time for the convertible form factor to take off,” Agorrilla said. “Our convertibles are the perfect ‘do’ machines that users can seamlessly integrate into every aspect of their lifestyle.”
The IdeaPad Yoga will be available locally by the end of December and will retail for P60,995 in stores, while a high-end version running Intel’s Core i7 chip is due for release next year.
source: interaksyon.com
