Lenovo unveils ThinkPad X1 in India

Lenovo, the personal computer (PC) maker with its business strategy of ‘protect & attack’, is slowly but firmly making inroads into the Indian market. The company launched here on Monday the ThinkPad X1, which it claimed is the slimmest notebook in the enterprise or business segment.
Riding on last year’s high growth, the company is making strong efforts across business segments, particularly the consumers and small and medium business (SMB), to push up its position against other PC vendors here.
According to Amar Babu, Lenovo India managing director, during the last six quarters the company has been the fastest growing vendor in the market.
“Lenovo’s growth worldwide is balanced across segments and countries. In India, Lenovo’s business growth is shared among segments like enterprise, retail, consumer and SMB. During the last year, Lenovo touched the double-digit growth in India with 10 per cent market share,” Babu told reporters on the sidelines of the product launch.
ThinkPad X1 comes in 13.3 inch ‘Corning Gorilla Glass’ – scratch proof screen, spill proof keyboard, active protection system (APS) to overcome jerks and shocks, powered by Intel i5 core processor and 10 hours battery life.
It is built on the 13-inch form factor, weighing about 1.7 kg, 160 GB solid state disk (SSD) coupled with multimedia features like Dolby Home Theater V4 and quick battery recharge, where the company claimed that 80 per cent battery charged in 30 minutes. With price starting at Rs.90000, Lenovo is targeting ThinkPad X1, primarily for enterprise segment.
During the event, Babu expressed high confidence about Lenovo’s growth.
“We grew faster than the market with over 60 per cent growth, while the market grew by 25 per cent last year,” Babu claimed. During 2010, Lenovo’s consumer and enterprise segment both grew by 20 per cent and the SMB segment reported a double-digit growth, he added.
In terms of Lenovo’s future growth in India, Babu said the company is focusing on retail, consumer and SMB segments.
“We had opened 300 outlets last year and have opened 400 exclusive outlets this year. And we are targeting 1000 Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES) in the tier-4 and tier-5 by the end of this year,” he informed.
However, Babu clarified these outlets or exclusive stores are not Lenovo owned.
Early this year, Lenovo opened 18 LES in different cities and towns in Bihar and wants to expand its reach to rural and semi-urban areas beyond the metros.
“We want to be the largest IT vendor in India and want to grow faster than the market. We believe, we can become the leader in this business and it will take time but we are working on it, so we can get there,” Babu confidently said.
The company has different product range across segments and markets. It has tied up with five top distributors, 45 regional distributors and has 100 exclusive channel partners along with a set of tier 2 partners spread across Indian market. For enterprise segment, Babu added that Lenovo works through system integrators (SI).