Lenovo Investing $800 Million into Mobile Technology

When you think of Lenovo, PCs often come to mind, and they should. Lenovo recently surpassed Dell in terms of PC sales and is now standing second next to HP. But their commitment and rise in laptops isn’t good enough for Lenovo. They want to expand, particularly into the area of mobile devices. And to show their commitment, they will be investing over $800 million into developing their mobile technology.

The LePhone

Lenovo has tested the mobile market waters with its LePhone smartphone and the ThinkPad. Sadly the corresponding sales of those devices weren’t up to par. The devices struggled in the US and didn’t fair too much better globally. Its devices were overlooked due to the popularity of iPhones and iPads.

It is still a smart move for Lenovo to get into the mobile market. Though they may have moved up the ranks in the PC market, their growth has been slowing down. This is partially due to the tablet market and the challenge its bringing to traditional laptops and computers. And with tablets likely being the future it makes sense for Lenovo to put a lot of resources towards it.

So what exactly are those millions of dollars going towards? Well, Lenovo plans on constructing a facility in Wuhan, China to develop mobile technology, which is almost definitely going to include smartphones and tablets. The facility is set to open in October 2013, so don’t expect any major announcements of new Lenovo mobile devices any time soon.

Even with all the money they are investing, Lenovo is still going to have a fundamental problem with beating out Apple and Android competitors. They don’t have the brand recognition in the mobile space so if they want to get noticed they’ll need something that blows consumers out of the water. And that can prove to be a tough class since the facility is still a year away and by then we’ll have already hit the iPhone 6 (or 5S) and countless other Droids will have been released.

Of course, it’d be wrong to count Lenovo out of the mobile race. A lot can be done $800 million and we’ll see if anything comes to fruition next year.