Lenovo: 7'' Tablets Will Compete With Smartphones, Not PCs

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Smartphones expected to regularly adapt five-inch screen.

Instead of PCs, Lenovo expects the ever-growing market for 7-inch tablets to compete with large-screen smartphones.

During the company's second-quarter earnings conference call, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said he had read a report on Apple's iPad Mini and was optimistic in terms of the continuous trend in the tablet market.

"The market accepts the 7-inch [tablet] better than the 10-inch. That's a very strong signal, the tablet will not replace the traditional PC," he said. "Probably, the tablet will compete with the large-screen smartphone rather than the PC."

DisplaySearch said in a research note that future smartphones will feature 5-inch displays with a 1,920×1,080 pixel density. Devices such as the 4.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S3 boasts a 4.8-inch screen with a 1,280x720 resolution. HTC has released its own 5-inch device in the form of the Butterfly, while Sony is due to release its own device with the same screen size next year.

Yuanqing also discussed touch screens arriving for Windows 8-powered laptops. "Touch will become a very popular feature on the traditional PC. We can't guarantee we'll get 100 percent of what we want to get [but] we are definitely trying our best to get enough supply."

Lenovo stressed that the so-called convertibles (laptops that can be converted into a tablet) will become more popular than traditional laptops with touch screens.

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Zak Islam
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • fuzzion
    "The market accepts the 7-inch better than the 10-inch. "

    Thats what she said ;)
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    I'm looking forward to a day where display screens can bee folded 180 degree without having a noticeable line going through it.
    Reply
  • cookoy
    i agree with both points:
    1) the table will not replace the traditional PC; it will compete with large-screen smartphones
    2) convertibles will become more popular than traditional laptops with touch screens
    The CEO is good. He knows his products and target market. No wonder Lenovo is gaining market share.
    Reply
  • nbelote
    On launch day I picked up a Thinkpad Twist for work (I do IT for an organization with multiple locations so I am always on the go... a hybrid/convertible works wonders in this arena as I am not always sitting). I am also going to pick up a Thinkpad Tablet 2 for my wife for school. So far, in my opinion, Lenovo has the best understanding of Windows 8 and what it is designed to do. They've got it going on.
    Reply
  • bystander
    I really don't think that the iPad mini is competing against phones. Who is walking around with a 7" tablet in their pocket or attached to their hip?

    I honestly don't know what it is competing against. Perhaps it's competing against the budget tablet? Time will tell.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Both of my sisters and both of my parents use computers mostly for browsing, reading/writing mail, Youtube, Facebook and online banking. Most of their friends (and most of mine) have similar usage patterns. All these people really need is a screen of some sort (smart-TV, smartphone, tablet, convertible/hybrid, etc.) with keyboard, they do not need a conventional PC.

    This is where PC/laptop sales are going to hurt most: non-gamer non-professional PC users realizing that they can now do just about everything they used their PCs for on a $200 tablet and smartphone/tablet computing should get much better with new/upcoming products featuring 2GB RAM.
    Reply
  • Touch will not be popular on Traditional PCs, Touch for content consumers but not for content creators! If Leveno makes all touch screen laptops, they better write a touch screen interface that can work with any OS and one that can be turned off if the user so chooses! Better yet, would be Levono should offer laptops that run and boot into a type 1 hypervisor VM and let he user run any OS, beacuse the future of computing is really going to be virtualized and HSA! Future PCs will not need to be chained to any OS, and will be able to run any OS or more than one OS at a time, by booting into a hypervisor!
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    I think tablets are a definate threat to the laptop market right now. I see phones being a threat to tablets down the road, but not the other way around.
    Everyone needs a phone, technologically minded people will always have a smart phone, but when push comes to shove people will give up their laptop if it can do the work of their larger portable devices.

    Before phones can really threaten the tablet market we need to see a few things;
    1) slightly larger screens without larger phones (less bezel)
    2) a more productivity oriented interface
    3) more productivity oriented programs
    4) docking capability, with enough horsepower to drive a large display
    Reply
  • So either PC manufacturers phase out their low-end sub-notebooks and netbooks then focus on tablets ala surface and transformer or make those less expensive to stay relevant.
    Reply
  • Zingam_Duo
    7" tablets are too small for everything you do except maybe Skype and and games.
    Reply