David RichardsLenovo are going after the premium consumer market with a new range of notebooks and there is every possibility that their popular ThinkPad which have been a mainstay of the B2B market could be sold in select retail stores according to Lenovo Australia CEO Matt Codrington.
During an interview with ChannelNews at IFA 2019 Codrington said that Officeworks will soon sell their popular business notebooks which are not available at JB Hi Fi or Harvey Norman despite the former IBM developed notebook being available in the USA at Best Buy.
During a launch presentation, Lenovo executives admitted that B2B customers were today walking onto retail stores and buying a consumer notebook for work, as opposed to a product such as the Companies ThinkPad range which is specifically developed for the always on the go executive.
The Company who is now trying to work out how to attract Gen Z and Millennials believes that connectivity between mobiles and their portable notebooks is key.
They described Gen Z as those born in 1995 or later, this target audience is a ‘1st mobile native generation’ of which 50% use a notebook ‘multiple times a day’, they make up 24% of the workforce.
The millennial target audience who were born between 1990 and 1995 are ‘prolific smartphone users. While making up 35% of the workforce they are known to ‘multitask across many digital devices.
Codrington said that SMB’s are not always buying ‘Enterprise devices’ due to perceived lower prices of the Lenovo consumer product which is being discounted out at mass retailers such as JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman.
Another key factor is that the consumer devices are seen to deliver ‘Appealing consumer designs for millennials’ according to Lenovo management.
In the home Codrington believes that the ability to easily stream content and be able to watch it on a new generation display screen and the introduction of new 500 nit display in a notebook.
A classic example of the new generation notebooks that Lenovo are releasing is the all-metal Lenovo Yoga C740 which is available in a 14-inch or 15-inch screen size in two stylish hues, Mica or Iron Grey.
The device which ChannelNews has had a first look at allows users to flip smoothly from notebook to tablet mode.
Lightweight with design details such as a colour-matched keyboard, this 2-in-1 device has smart features that respond to users’ needs including its clever TrueBlock Privacy Shutter and more secure fingerprint login.
Lift the lid to talk to Alexa from across the room and get instant results—even when the laptop screen is locked.
In Australia the device will be Google Voice enabled according to Codrington.
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