When Lenovo, the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor, launched its tablet computer on Monday night, the world was not invited.
The company treated Chinese media to a lavish party in Shanghai, and the LePad – a device with a 10.1-inch screen powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor – went on sale in China only. And yet, some industry experts see the Chinese company, under Yang Yuanqing, chief executive, as the most likely future rival for Apple in the global tablet market.
Manish Nigam, head of Asia technology research at Credit Suisse, said Lenovo might be the best positioned among the new tablet vendors because of its dominant position in China. The company has a 30 per cent share in the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing PC market.