January 6th. Maybe it’s somebody’s birthday, or someone’s wedding anniversary, but to most people, it’s just an ordinary day. This past January 6th, 2 days ago, to me has a very special meaning. I clearly remember ten years ago, when we embraced the dream of letting Chinese people enter the Internet age, and brought the Tianxi computer to Las Vegas. ten years later, at the same CES show in Las Vegas, we released Lenovo’s newest Mobile Internet Strategy and three brand new terminal products: Lenovo Smartphone, Skylight and IdeaPad U1. It was like déjà vu, familiar, but unfamiliar, almost like a reincarnation, but an all new beginning.
Speaking of these three new products, in my opinion they all represent significant milestones—just as people often say, nothing worth doing comes easy. Not only do they conform to Lenovo’s recent innovations, they also reflect the needs of our customers around the world. In addition to conveying Lenovo’s corporate strategy in the mobile era, these products are the result of R&D and marketing personnel who have produced the best user experience with their efforts.
In these 4 years of development, as a designer, R&D participant, and innovation team manager, I have experienced a lot. I have also received a great deal of satisfaction. The satisfaction is tremendous, and it really makes you think.
I also believe in the process of sharing, which sparks people like us who aspire to provide the greatest user experience for customers.
This time in Las Vegas, we stayed in a Venetian style hotel. We were surrounded by art which provided for an ideal, albeit surreal, atmosphere. But what I liked best was shuttling back and forth in the Gondola boats. It made me feel like I was travelling back to Venice in the time of the Renaissance.
Maybe it’s because of the connection between time and space, but I think it indicates that we may be at the beginning of an Eastern Renaissance.
Once again, let’s go back ten years to November 1999, our first time in Las Vegas showing the Lenovo “Tianxi” Internet desktop computer. At that time, the Internet had just become popular in China, most people were still using dial-up Internet connections, and going online required special permission and account passwords. Apart from a few businessmen and researchers, most Chinese people were still strangers to the Internet, and possibly even a bit afraid. At that time, Lenovo was already China’s largest PC producer. From a global perspective and based on accurate predictions of Internet trends and user needs, we designed a “one button Internet” for the Tianxi computer. By combining the hardware platform and the software interface, and integrating network access and information service, we seamlessly connected the computer and the Internet, and opened the door for Chinese Internet users. After the CES show, Tianxi became a household name in home computers, but the success wasn’t limited to Las Vegas. Sales were superb as well.
Since the birth of Tianxi 10 years ago, the Innovation Design Center, the Lenovo Research Institute, the User Research Center, and other multi-disciplinary departments have been exploring trends of PC development from the perspectives of professional direction and corporate strategy, and have been reflecting and exploring how to create the most ideal user experience.
Over these ten years, the world around us has been experiencing revolutionary change. The Internet has already become a way of life. You can see it everywhere and today it’s represented by the smartphones which are now the predominant mobile terminal devices.
New roles for Internet applications are emerging. When you look around, what you see is a faster, more dynamic world.
During these 10 years, Lenovo has also made a historic jump. From the acquisition of IBM’s PC business which brought us to the international stage, until we became a global partner with the International Olympic Committee, and the design for the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch “Cloud of Promise”, the multi-disciplinary Innovation Design Center not only has developed new cutting-edge technology, it has also gradually formed new advanced design concepts.
We have benefited from designing the Olympic torch, and as we have expanded our company’s sense of social responsibility, we have also improved our professional ability in social sciences, technology, culture, and fashion. We’re cultivating the capability to produce world-class products based on our thorough understanding of global users and fashion trends, and the capability of promoting Lenovo brand and business operations in the world.
We found the user wants to be online anywhere and balance the demands of work and daily life. Our insight into the changing needs of global customers provides tremendous room for development to global PC makers such as Lenovo. In the end, we will be focusing on a particular point, mobile Internet. It’s not only a world-class, fashionable design, but an extremely function design, a user-friendly interface and rich content services, in order to create the best application experience for users worldwide and a new way to enjoy mobile Internet. You could say, today, the Lenovo Smartphone we revealed at the CES show, as well as the Skylight and Ideapad U1 which debuted together, are the masterpieces which fulfilled our dream from Las Vegas 10 years ago.
Looking back on these ten years, from the discovery of new opportunities for mobile Internet, to the development of Lenovo Smartphone and the “3 Musketeers,” and then the formulation of a complete mobile internet strategy, this lengthy process experienced numerous sub-product technologies, user requests, and the collision of brand marketing and industrial design. From the birth of the flagship product to the finalizing of the corporate strategy, and then to the integration of strategic resources, you could say all great success is inseparably tied to R&D, round the clock design, marketing personnel, and teamwork. We couldn’t survive without the technology strategy management of CTO George He, the understanding of IT trends from CEO Yuan Qing, and the extensive support from Chairman Liu on strategic resource integration. Without the help of everybody involved, today there might not be any Lenovo mobile strategy, 3 Musketeers, or the perfect debut. Perhaps, precisely because of the corporation from top to bottom there will be more stories like these in the future.
These stories, or you could say “experiences,” include design innovation and technology, inspiration, strategy management, branding and promotion. It is rich and complex in nature and also confirms the challenges along the road to independent corporate innovation.
I hope to enjoy and participate in an interactive process with you, with all of you, sharing the space, slowing down the busy pace of work, and gradually recounting these stories.