Lenovo at CES: After Days of New PCs, the Surprise of Smartphones

Lenovo finished out 2012 by overtaking longtime global PC market leader Hewlett-Packard. It was a maneuver that's been years in the making and came thanks to Lenovo's "protect and attack" strategy—protect the markets you have, attack the ones you don't. The 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week was arguably Lenovo's first opportunity, as market leader, to show its intent on protecting and attacking next. Over three days, Lenovo seemed to say that no market was not of interest. It introduced all-in-one desktops, flexible laptops, laptops that convert to a convertible tablet and then a literal tablet. There was an intense blue-glowing desktop for gamers, a gigantic tablet meant for laying on tabletops or floors and playing games with—when not propping it up and getting down to business—and the offered peek at yet a larger tablet still being developed, and resembling a small, rolling medical table. Finally, late on the third day, it also introduced five new Android-running smartphones that will debut in China—where Lenovo is a smartphone leader—and "select global markets" later in January. The Ideaphone K900 features a 5.5-inch display that Lenovo says is the world's first full high definition (FHD) with 400-plus pixels per inch—and that's in combination with a device that's even thinner (though not lighter) than the Apple iPhone 5. Lenovo calls it a combination of "outstanding design innovation" that offers users a "new and better experience."