Lenovo Group Ltd’s (聯想) Taiwan branch yesterday introduced two new netbooks as the company makes its first foray into the “mini-laptop” business started by Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) at the end of last year.
The two models — Ideapad S9, with a screen measuring 8.9 inches and Ideapad S10, with a 10.2-inch screen — both weigh less than 1kg and are powered by Atom processors and one gigabyte (GB) of RAM.
S9 features 8GB of internal memory, a Linux platform and retails for NT$12,900 (US$420). The S10 features 80GB of internal memory, Windows XP and retails for NT$17,900, Lenovo Taiwan said. The two netbooks will be available to the public next month at major consumer electronics stores, the company said.
Demand for mini-laptops is expected to grow substantially in the next few years because of their competitive prices and easy availability.
Based on market researcher IDC’s statistics, 43,000 netbooks were sold domestically last year. Annual sales figure are projected to reach 9.2 million units by 2012.
“IDC sees strong netbook market growth in the education system. Hence Lenovo also wants to target this prime audience,” said Benjamin Ou (歐明哲), new general manager at Lenovo Taiwan.
Ou resigned last month from Hewlett-Packard’s Taiwan branch. He brings seven years of product management and sales channel experience to his new role at the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor.
Amy Wu (吳慧玲), sales manager at Lenovo, described one primary client group for netbooks as working professionals looking for a second laptop that is easier to travel with.
“An ideal customer can be a life insurance sales representative, a financial adviser or a traveling executive who spends lot of time outside the company,” she said.
After conducting extensive market research, Lenovo is using its “sales channels to directly target these particular corporate and institutional groups,” Wu said.
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