Lenovo engineers 'Ideas' for people

BANGALORE, INDIA: Lenovo launched a new consumer PC brand - “Idea” in India. The new consumer-oriented IdeaPad notebooks and IdeaCentre desktops will complement Lenovo’s business-oriented ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops. The Idea range has been engineered for the best user experience with cutting edge capabilities, trendsetting design, and built-in peace of mind.

The Idea range makes a bold design statement with frameless screens, touch-sensitive control surfaces and unique textures. It combines cutting-edge and easy-to-use technologies such as face recognition, Dolby Home Theater surround sound and dedicated gaming controls. The range also comes with Lenovo’s legacy of unmatched engineering and built-in peace of mind with features such as One Key Recovery, outstanding durability, the legendary ThinkPad inspired keyboard and an extended battery management feature to customize user-specific battery usage patterns, antibacterial keyboards.

“We’re bringing Lenovo’s expertise in design and engineering to consumers with our Idea-branded PCs. Lenovo designed its Idea-branded PCs for the way people live, work and play with cutting-edge features. We are confident we will grow our consumer business by blending innovative technologies like facial recognition with stylish designs to enhance the way people use technology in their personal lives,” said

Liu Jun, senior vice president and president, Consumer Business Group, Lenovo.

Marketing campaign - “Ideas everywhere”

Lenovo plans to roll out, its marketing campaign called “Ideas everywhere”, to complement the product introduction in April 2008. The campaign will feature Lenovo’s brand ambassadors Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan in advertisements across different mediums such as print, online, email, direct mail and television in India.

“Lenovo has a significant focus on the consumer segment in India. The new IdeaPad and IdeaCentre products will deliver to our customers, an experience and products that are inspiring, dependable, exciting and aspirational,” said Anil Philip, executive director, Transaction Business, Lenovo India.

IdeaPad Notebooks

The IdeaPad line delivers notebooks designed for a variety of lifestyles with features integrated across the line such as:

• Convenient log-in and authentication: Users can make their face their password with VeriFace™ Face Recognition, a new, convenient way to log into the PC and a host of applications. The combination of the VeriFace software and an embedded camera can recognize a user’s face for log-in and help eliminate the need to remember passwords.
• Fully-loaded entertainment and multimedia: The notebooks are equipped with 4 speakers and a subwoofer creating the Dolby Home Theater, which delivers exceptional surround sound for movies, videos, music and games and offers a cinema-style experience for listeners through the PCs multiple speakers (most models have five speakers). Lenovo’s Multimedia Control Center provides an excellent multimedia experience with easy-to-use software to play movies, listen to music and view photos. With touch sensitive controls, users can quickly select among multimedia choices, volume and equalizer.
• Distinctive look and design: Lenovo notebooks set the trend for stylish design in blue, red or black and with smooth, weave or raised textured top covers. Frameless screens provide a unique viewing experience in addition to an impact-resistance screen.
  
  In addition to these shared innovations, each notebook offers a number of extra features intended to maximize the experience that the notebooks were designed for, such as:

IdeaPad Y710 – For Gaming Enthusiasts

• 17-inch widescreen notebook for users who desire a high level of performance for entertainment
• Game Zone includes enlarged directional buttons for enhanced game play, four user-customizable buttons
• Halo Lighting – With this a user can set the notebook to emit a different color light from the side bezel and Lenovo logo on the front of the notebook
• Secondary display showing system information such as CPU speed
• Includes a performance control switch with Turbo mode for maximum power, including CPU over clocking, and quiet mode for energy savings
• Hot-swap with 2 hard drives to easily store and transfer data
• Distinctively designed with a smooth blue- metallic finish
• Equipped with Intel Centrino processor technology, ATI graphics, WLAN connectivity, five speakers including a subwoofer

IdeaPad Y510 – The Ultimate Entertainer

• All-in-one 15.4-inch widescreen notebook
• Dolby 4.1 Home Theater speaker system for enhanced sound output and theatre experience
• Sleek touch-sensitive pad to control the various multimedia features are accessed and controlled
• In-built TV tuner card helps ensure instant television connectivity accentuating the multimedia experience
• Lenovo breaks away from the typical gloss and matt finish and presents a progressively-styled light weave texture for a classy, elegant look in black, textured, linen-like top cover
• Latest Veriface face recognition software that gives users a convenient and secure way to log on to the PC
• One Key Recovery to restore factory preload settings, to provide consumers with a peaceful ownership experience
• The Y510's keyboard offers outstanding feel and durability, inspired by the legendary ThinkPad keyboard, and an extended battery management feature to customize user-specific battery usage patterns
• Equipped with Intel Centrino processor technology, integrated graphics, WLAN connectivity, five speakers including a subwoofer, an integrated camera, battery life indicator and a DVD-RW optical drive

IdeaPad U110 – CES Best of 2008, Las Vegas

•  An ultraportable 11-inch widescreen notebook PC
• Weighs only 1.05 kg and is 0.7 inches deep
• The textured design embedded in its red aluminum alloy top cover blends style and durability
• Extensive computing time with an additional battery
• Equipped with Active Protection System, an air-bag like device that parks the hard drive to help protect data during a fall
• 11.1” back lit LED display

IdeaCentre K200 Desktops - The ideal PC for families

• Lenovo’s Bright Vision for eyesight protection
• Also engineered with an anti-bacterial keyboard which uses special materials on the surface of the keys to restrain bacterial growth
• Equipped with Card Reader Support and Dual tone color
• Incorporates Lenovo’s vantage technology along with one-key recovery, one-key antivirus, file management and installing drivers and software
• Tool free design and Dust free design

IdeaCentre Q200 Desktops - Living room digital performance PC

• IdeaCentre Q200 is a living room digital performance PC with a "new form" or "new image"
• Its slim design and style is based on an absolute harmony of straight lines and pure colors underlying the visible world and takes inspiration from the Artist Piet Mondrian
• Boasts of reliability and high quality
• Incorporates Lenovo’s vantage technology along with one-key recovery, one-key antivirus, file management and installing drivers and software
• Lenovo’s Bright Vision for eyesight protection
• Vista remote control

According to Prakash Bagri, Director of Marketing, Intel, South Asia, "Intel Centrino technology has improved virtually all aspects of Intel-based notebooks, the most popular and fastest growing computing market segment in the world. Lenovo's new IdeaPad notebooks and IdeaCentre desktops using Intel technology will offer consumers improved performance when running multiple applications simultaneously, additional power management features for greater battery life, high-definition video experience and up to five times the performance for such tasks as downloads and twice the wireless access range. We are pleased to partner with Lenovo in bringing these products to consumers."

The launch of Lenovo’s Idea brand in India follows its global consumer launch in January this year, part of a multi-pronged strategy to continue to grow faster and more profitably than industry average. Lenovo has already made an impact on the consumer PC segment in India, which it had forayed into in March 2006. It deployed the transaction business model which resulted in tripling its Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES) and growing its multi-brand outlets (MBOs) almost seven times in the past two years. By roping in Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan as brand ambassadors, and with creative marketing strategies, Lenovo has also created significant brand awareness for itself in India. With the launch of Idea-branded consumer PCs in India, Lenovo will now expand the roll-out of the transaction model, focus on growing share in the consumer PC segment, enhancing customer experience and building a stronger brand in India.

Pricing and Availability1

The IdeaPad Y510 and IdeaCentre K200 are currently available at all Lenovo authorized storefronts; IdeaPad Y710 and IdeaPad U110 will be available in all Lenovo authorized storefronts in April, 2008. The IdeaPad range starts from Rs. 42,000 and the IdeaCentre from Rs. 23,050/-. More information on the products can be found at www.lenovo.com/ideas.