Prepare for an influx of announcements from all the major tech companies over the coming days, CES 2016 is well and truly upon us. First out of the blocks is Lenovo who showed off a brand new 13-inch ThinkPad. The ThinkPad 13 will come in both Windows and Chrome OS flavors, and is priced right in the middle of the market…
While the door-busting Black Friday weekend deals are long gone, there are still some great discounts out there for holiday shoppers. One of today’s featured tech deals on eBay is a heavily discounted Lenovo IdeaPad N20p Chromebook. The Chrome OS-based laptop normally retails at around $300, and is currently available for just $170 in limited quantity. As a reference, the same Chromebook is priced at $290 on Amazon, where even used models are more expensive than the eBay deal.
Spec-wise, the Lenovo IdeaPad N20p is respectable. It has an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 resolution, 10-point multitouch display which can swivel around 300. Inside, there’s a 2.16GHz quad-core Intel Celeron processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. It has a plethora of I/O ports too; there’s a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, SD card slot, mini HDMI out, 3.5mm jack and the necessary power input. It also has built-in stereo speakers, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. Not a bad spec-list for a device that costs less than $200.
If the Lenovo IdeaPad doesn’t take your fancy (even at this price), and you’re hunting for a Chromebook this holiday season, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the best Chromebooks for any budget.
When it comes to high-end Android tablets, they don’t come much more unique than the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro. The full-size tablet is equipped with a Quad HD resolution 10.1-inch screen, Intel Atom quad-core processor, a 10,200vmAh battery and has a built-in projector. Its unusual design certainly makes it stand out. But is it any good?
Known stateside for their purchase of Motorola, Lenovo makes and sells their own branded smartphones in China and some European countries. The Vibe X3 continues the Vibe series, but it’s now a lineup of three models. All three share a 5.5-inch full HD Gorilla Glass display and rather serious audio tech, but differentiate in other specs…
Despite a 16% year-on-year growth of revenue to $12.2 billion, Lenovo has just announced its first quarterly loss in six years. In its fiscal Q2 earnings results, the manufacturer blames both the competitive nature of the smartphone market and the restructure following its finalized Motorola acquisition for its losses.
Before tax, Lenovo lost around $324 million on unsold smartphone inventory and $599 million to “restructuring costs”.
The official HKFRS losses were driven by the realignment plans Lenovo disclosed during its Q1 results, including worldwide expense reduction actions across all businesses, the integration of the System x Business, the organization and brand alignment of Motorola and the Lenovo Mobile Business Group and clearance of smartphone inventory.
It’s not entirely bad news for Lenovo though. The addition of the Motorola brand has meant the company saw a year-on-year sales increase of 104% of in its Mobile Business Group. It sold $2.7 billion worth of smartphones, Android tablets and TVs. $1.4 billion of those were Motorola sales. Most of this growth is down to sales outside of China. Across the first two quarters of its financial year, 70 percent of its mobile products were purchased outside Chinese borders. This time last year, that figure was just 19 percent.
Unlike the rest of the tablet industry, Lenovo’s sales actually grew, selling 18.8 million units, up 11 percent from last year.
Despite making a loss last quarter, Lenovo is convinced that the mobile division will return to money making ways after the next couple of quarters. With the rise of competitive and affordable products from other brands, it’ll be a tough challenge. But, with the likes of the Moto G, Moto X and new DROIDs in its lineup, the company certainly has the hardware to compete. What’s more, it just opened its very first boutique retail store in Chicago to help boost high street presence.
A short while ago, @upleaks showed off a press render of what they claim is the Lenovo ‘Lemon X’, and it could be our first look at a Lenovo handset at least partially designed by Motorola’s hardware team. Although specifications and availability plans are thin on the ground, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the Motorola division is behind the upcoming phone’s design…
Lenovo is one of the busiest companies at IFA this year. Not only has it had its Motorola smartphones and smartwatches to deal with, but also its own-brand devices. As well as announcing its new budget Chromebook, Lenovo has taken the wraps off new Android-powered smartphones: The PHAB and the Vibe series’.
Both Acer and Lenovo have updated their Chromebook lineups at IFA 2015 in Berlin today, and both are looking to offer decent products at attractive price points. Acer announced the new R11 Chromebook in a bid to compete with the convertible ASUS Chromebook Flip, while Lenovo unveiled the budget-friendly Chromebook 100S.
The original Moto 360 in champagne gold
The Moto 360 leaks just won’t stop. We’ve seen images front, back and all-around of the smaller Moto 360S and larger Moto 360L, but now Evleaks (by the way, didn’t he retire or something?) has shared images of what could be one of the more expensive Moto 360 variants. They’re probably not Apple Watch Edition-level expensive, but more likely close to the price range of the Huawei Watch (another Android Wear device that’s slated to have its availability and pricing detailed at IFA).
As you can see above, there looks to be at least a couple of what are assumably gold-plated models in both the “small” and “large” sizes. As we told you yesterday, the small device is slated to have a 42mm body, while the large is expected to sport a 46mm case. All of the above watches have link bracelets,but Motorola could still offer these with a leather band, perhaps through Moto Maker. We saw a lot of watches leaked in renders yesterday, but none of them looked quite like the gold ones above.
Based on an image we shared with you earlier today, it seems Motorola is prepping to show off the Moto 360 on September 8th. We’re on the ground in Berlin already, and we’ll be keeping you up to the minute on the latest in the world of Android, Android Wear, and anything else that might catch us by surprise over the next week.
Take out your salt shakers, but new images have made their way onto Reddit picturing what is purportedly the case of Motorola’s next iteration to the Android Wear-powered Moto 360.
Motorola and its parent company Lenovo recently opened a new manufacturing facility in India that is predicted to output as many as 6 million smartphone units annually. Motorola India published a video to YouTube today showing off the plant — in it you can see some of the individual steps that go into putting together a 2015 Moto E, much of which still seems to be done by hand.
The new plant has been created in support of a “Made in India” campaign that the government there has been pushing in order to get more companies manufacturing in India. The campaign so far has attracted big names including Microsoft, Xiaomi, LG, ASUS, and several others. India’s government hopes increased manufacturing investment in a handful of sectors including electronics will spark job creation and GDP growth, a good measure of living standards that is still low in the country. Lenovo earlier today tweeted a picture from a press event celebrating the company’s new plant.
Maybe this means India will finally get access to Moto Maker?
Two products with the model numbers 360S and 360L have passed through the telecommunications agency Anatel in the past week. While much information has been omitted from public eyes, a couple details lead us to believe that Motorola is reaching the launch of a successor to last year’s Android Wear-powered Moto 360 smartwatch — and in two sizes.
While Apple’s iPad continues to lead the tablet market, according to new data from IDC, its marketshare has dropped a few points year-over-year, and the overall market for tablets saw negative growth, based on units shipped globally. That’s according to second quarter 2015 unit shipments and marketshare over the same quarter a year ago, as Apple shipped 10.9 million units versus 13.3 million units during the second quarter of 2014. While the iPad continues to lead in the tablet space, IDC’s data shows Apple’s market share dropping nearly 3 points from 27.7% to 24.5%.
Samsung, the number two player in the tablet space, similarly saw declines in both units shipped and market share from Q2 2014 to Q2 2015. The Korean company slipped by a million tablets during the quarter year-over-year, falling from 8.6 million units to 7.6 million units, while its market share dropped a point from 18% to 17% …
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It’s early but we’re here at the Moto ‘Choose a Better Relationship” event in NYC. We’re obviously expecting a new Moto X and Moto G but we’re really excited to see what a better mobile relationship entails. We’re live! Head below for the latest.
A new report claims that Motorola will be launching its next budget-friendly Moto in stores on July 29th, just one day after its launch event. But that’s not the most exciting part of the story. If the leaked retail memos are genuine, customers will be able to walk in to stores and order their personalized Moto Maker device from a physical, brick-and-mortar store…
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If a recent — slightly sketchy — report is anything to go by, Motorola could be set to announce new versions of its popular stock Android phones. A new Moto X “Sport” and a new Moto G have shown up in leaks which come from Chilean operator, Entel.
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Lenovo has today shown off a couple of product prototypes that fall somewhere on the scale with ‘interesting tech’ at one end and ‘batsh*t crazy’ at the other… Buck Rogers style.
The first is Magic View, a smartwatch with a second display – a really tiny one – embedded in the strap. The idea appears to be that when the main display alerts you to new content, you hold the tiny screen up very, very close to your eye to view that content on the second display. I’m just waiting for someone wearing Google Glass and someone with their smartwatch in front of their nose to walk into each other …
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Lenovo’s first full quarter since it completed the acquisition of Motorola from Google brought good news and bad: smartphone shipments and revenue up, but profits down.
TechCrunch reports that Lenovo shipped a record 18.7M smartphones in the final quarter of 2014, reported now, with year-on-year revenues up 21% – but profits fell 37% …
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An image was supposedly posted today by Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing on Chinese microblogging site Weibo (via MyDrivers), showing what looks to be an unreleased prototype of the Moto 360 smartwatch. It’s not clear whether or not this is indeed an upcoming version of the device (it’s almost surely a prototype), but it definitely looks to be a bit different than what’s currently available…
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Qualcomm, which licenses 3G and 4G communications patents to smartphone manufacturers, has been fined almost a billion dollars by the Chinese government in an anti-trust case. The company was found to have abused its dominant position in wireless chip technology by charging “unfairly high” licensing fees to manufacturers of smartphones and tablets.
The 6B Yuan ($960M) fine is the largest fine ever imposed on a foreign company, reports the Guardian. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that the fine was calculated as 8% of Qualcomm’s 2013 revenue in China. China is responsible for around half of Qualcomm’s total revenue.
Chinese regulators said that Qualcomm bundled together patent licenses, forcing Chinese companies to buy unwanted licenses in order to get the core 3G and 4G ones they needed. Qualcomm said that it was disappointed by the ruling, but has agreed to separate out its licenses to allow companies to purchase only the ones they need.
The ruling should reduce costs for Chinese smartphone makers, but it isn’t known how significant the saving may be, and it’s unlikely to show up as a price-reduction for consumers.
Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters
Lenovo this evening has reported its calendar Q4 2014 earnings, and as is well-known, Motorola is now a part of the company, so the earnings are bit more interesting this time around. According to the earnings release, Motorola Mobility sold 10 million smartphones last quarter, which is up 118 percent compared to the year ago quarter.
IDC is out today with its numbers on tablet shipments for Q4 2014 showing Apple & Samsung remained on top of the market both last quarter and throughout 2014 despite a slight drop in overall market share.
Apple sold 21.4 million iPads during the holiday quarter last year, which gave the company around 28% market share compared to 33% with 26 million units sold during the same quarter last year. Apple beats out number two Samsung, according to IDC, which grabbed 14.5% of the market in Q4 with 11 million units shipped. Samsung also dipped in overall market share from 17.2% with 13.5 million units shipped in the year ago quarter.
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At CES 2015, Lenovo has unveiled a handful of new Android-powered devices, including both phones and tablets. First off, the company has announced the Vibe X2 Pro (seen above, left), which is an updated version of the Vibe X2 we saw back at IFA. The X2 Pro features a 5.3-inch 1080p display and is powered by a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor. There are also two 13MP cameras on the device, one on the front and one on the back. The Vibe X2 Pro launches in April outside the U.S. and is powered by Android 4.4 with Lenovo’s custom skin on top.
Many Samsung employees are expected to lose their jobs in the next week or two as the company is set to announce its annual personnel changes early next month. The company recently reported a 74% drop in mobile profits and is planning to produce 30% fewer smartphone models next year in the face of increasing competition from Chinese brands Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei.
Dramatically slowing sales of its flagship handset led the company to shore up its share price with a $2B stock buyback …
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