Lenovo hopes to sell 1mn smartphones in India, 6 new devices launched

This week Lenovo launched six smartphones in India, including its top range device, the K900, which is a 5.5-inch tablet with an Intel dual-core processor. Lenovo also launched the P780, S920, S820, A706 and A390. The company showcased its smartphones at an event in Mumbai where Executive Director for Worldwide Product lanch Nick  Reynolds was also present.

Firstpost interacted with Nick on Lenovo’s India strategy and the newly launched smartphone range. Below are edited excerpts:

On India strategy: Nick announced that Lenovo had signed up with two new distributors, Reddington and Ingram Micro. “The tie-up will help us move from around 3,000 to 12,000 stores. Lenovo hopes to sell 1 million smartphones in India in 2013,” he said. Nick also added that the company would be focusing a lot more on  television campaigns for its Lenovo smartphones as it hopes to spread the word. For now Lenovo is focusing on retailing smartphones better. One need to  remember that Ingram Micro and Reddington also handle the distribution for Apple.

On pricing in India and cheaper rivals: The cheapest Lenovo smartphone that was showcased, the A390, starts at Rs 8,689, while the K900 is priced at 32,999. In between this range, you have the A706 priced at Rs 15,949, and the S820 and S920 priced at Rs 19,599 and Rs 26,339 respectively. The P780 is priced at Rs 22,529.

Clearly Lenovo’s price range while it starts at Rs 8,000, tends to be on the higher side considering Karbonn and Micromax are shelling out quad-core phones for less than Rs 12k.

According to Nick, “We don’t want to be the ones in the bottom tier. In terms of competition, Samsung is our biggest rival and that’s where we want to compete. We are an international brand and that’s how we’d like to be recognised in India.”

On Dual SIM devices: Other than the K900, all the others are Dual-SIM devices. Nick said, “The strategy behind Dual-SIM devices is that we’re hoping that people don’t end up using two smartphones, which is why we’ve launched so many dual-SIM devices.” He added that dual-SIM was not standard on all premium devices and that Lenovo too was going with that trend.

On design of the products: The flagship device, K900 stood out in contrast to all the other smartphones. It was square with no rounded edges, a metal back casing with polycarbonate on top and bottom of the back body. Compared to the rest of the smartphones which Lenovo launched, the K900 did manage to stand out in terms of design.

Nick said that the company was hoping to get more continuity across the design of the smartphones soon. “We also still beta testing our own software which are overlaying on top of Android. We also intend to work closely with Google to roll out updates for the smartphones soon, although it is still a 3 to 6 month six cycle to push out udpates,” he said. He added that the company could later launch different colour versions of the K900.

The Lenovo smartphones will hit the stores by end of June while the K900 will out in stores by July.

Specs list of the smartphones. For details of the K900 click here.

A390 which is priced at Rs 8,689

• 1 GHz dual-core processor by Mediatek • Dual-SIM smartphone • 5 megapixel rear camera, no front camera • 4-inch screen with 480 by 800 resolution • 4GB Internal Storage, 512MB RAM and expandable storage of upto 32GB via microSD. • Android 4.0

A706 which is priced at Rs 15,949 • 1.2GHz quad-core processor • Dual-SIM • 5 megapixel rear camera and 0.3 megapixel front camera. • 4.5-inch screen with IPS and 480by854 resolution • Android 4.1 version Jelly Bean

P780 priced at Rs 22,529 • 1.2GHz quad-core processor • Has a 4000mAh battery, which Lenovo says gives 43 hours of non stop talktime. • 5-inch 720p display with IPS panel and 1280x720 resolution • 8 megapixel rear camera and 0.3 megapixel front camera • 1GB RAM, 4GB Internal storage, microSD slot with 32 GB as limit.

S920 priced at Rs 26,339

• 1.2 GHz quad-core processor • 5.3-inch screen with IPS and 1280x720 resolution • 1GB RAM, 4GB memory space and microSD slot with 32 GB as limit • 8 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera • Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean

S820 priced at Rs 19,599

• 1.2 Ghz quad-core processor. • 4.7 screen with IPS and 1280x720 resolution • 12 megapixel camera and 2 megapixel front camera • 1GB RAM, 4GB memory space and microSD slot with 32 GB as limit • Android 4.2 Jelly Bean