Lenovo Bows $749 Ultrabook, Campaigns For 10 Percent U.S. Share

Lenovo, known for road warrior notebook PCs rooted in the IBM PC business it purchased seven years ago, is attempting to break the business mold with a new series of “retail-friendly” Ultrabooks due in the U.S. later this month. Ultrabooks are a major part of Lenovo’s strategy to capture at least 10 percent of the consumer market in the U.S., and the company is funding that effort with a $50 million worldwide marketing campaign -- its most expensive ever -- that launches this month, Nick Reynolds, director, marketing & strategy, told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Reynolds said Lenovo has been the fastest growing PC vendor of the top five brands worldwide for the past 10 quarters and said an “internal goal” of the company is to overtake HP as number one PC company worldwide. He wouldn’t give a target date for when Lenovo plans to tip 10 percent share in the U.S., adding that the focus is on “profitability first."

To get there, Lenovo’s aim is to have some of the “most affordable Ultrabooks on the market,” Reynolds said, as the company attempts to lay claim to what it believes is the future of mobile computing. “We want to be known to have great product, and we need to build our brand,” he said. Lenovo brand recognition grew three-fold in the U.S. last year, he said, and the effort now is to offer an “affordable” way for consumers to step up from a $399 to $499 notebook PC, he said. In the last 12-18 months, the company has expanded distribution to include mainstream outlets such as Staples, Fry’s, Best Buy and Office Depot.

Starting price for the IdeaPad 13.3-inch U310 is $749 with a bump of $50 to $799 for the 14-inch U410. With the new generation, Lenovo is bringing the Ultrabook “to the masses,” Reynolds, said, targeting the customer who has been waiting for prices to drop on Ultrabooks before making a purchase. By contrast, Lenovo’s premiere Ultrabook, the U300S, hit the market last September at $1,099. Lenovo was able shave $350 off the entry-level price of an Ultrabook, through its “buying power as number-two PC maker in the world,” Reynolds said, aided by an overall drop in prices for solid-state drives.

In addition to touting consumer-friendly features of the Intel Ultrabook platform -- including instant-on functionality, fast boot time and always-connected mode for email and instant messaging -- Lenovo is making a strong design pitch with the new IdeaPad Ultrabooks that come in six colors and a thin and light design based on streamlined SSDs rather than hard disk drives. A distinctive style is a major part of the consumer Ultrabook strategy, Reynolds said, and the company has engineered what it says is a “unique industrial design,” fashioned around a moleskin look that’s designed to give the appearance of a thin folder or notebook. Reynolds pegged the design scheme a “differentiator” in a market where “everything else looks the same.”

The ad barrage, which covers TV, cinema and digital media, is centered on the “Book of Do,” and is aimed at teens and young professionals to show them ways the new Ultrabooks “can play a role in their digital lives,” Reynolds said. The campaign is based around a “caper,” where various consumers use an IdeaPad to achieve success in a selected profession, he said. As part of the campaign, Lenovo will hold contents at several colleges this fall for students to win a “Book of Do.” Lenovo is also working with DoSomething.org and Microsoft Bing this summer on a “hunt” based on the theme of “11 Days of Doing,” beginning July 10. In the hunt, participants will receive clues each day about service-related tasks they can complete to win Lenovo U310 and U410 Ultrabooks and other prizes, the company said.

The worldwide campaign is tailored to particular demographics in different markets. Marketing initiatives in Japan, around Miss Universe Japan 2012, highlight the intersection of fashion and technology, the company said. A campaign in India features a Bollywood actor touting his Ultrabook as an alternative to youths using cellphones and social-networking, Lenovo said. The 30-second ads are designed to be a “tease” to encourage people to go online and watch a longer “caper-based” feature involving the “Book of Do,” Reynolds said.

Ultrabooks are part of what Lenovo is calling its “four-screen strategy,” which also includes tablets, smartphones and smart TV. The company is ramping up business for smartphones and TV in China, where the smart TV launched last month, Reynolds said. Lenovo hasn’t disclosed a timetable for bringing the TV stateside, he said. Smartphones and tablet sales will expand to more markets before smart TV will, Reynolds said. “We want to learn that business and get good at it and then grow in the rest of the world,” he said.

On whether Lenovo will ship smartphones to the U.S. market this year, Reynolds said he wasn’t “at liberty to say,” noting that the company will introduce smartphones to other markets first, which it announced at CES. Last week, Lenovo bowed the Lenovo LePhone K800 in China, its first smartphone, announced at CES, running the Intel Atom processor. Suggested retail price of the Android-based phone, with 4.5-inch IPS screen, is roughly $525.