Lenovo to venture into enterprise tablet segment

The tablet PC segment is flooded with devices from various brands. But the rage started with the launch of the Apple iPad and it still continues to rule this particular segment of the market. So far, the attempts that have been made by companies other than Apple have had the compact and efficient ARM-based processors doing duty under the hood, coupled with the Google Android OS handling the software interface. Tablets using Windows or other OSs and those with Intel Atom CPUs are a rarity.

Tablet PCs that are doing business in the market now are all media-oriented devices and are seldom used by enterprise professionals. But now, we have reports that Lenovo is all set to venture into an untouched territory, that of enterprise-focused tablet PCs. Although it’s a well known fact that Lenovo has been working hard to release its own media-oriented tablet-the LePad slate, this news points to the possibility that a set of ThinkPad branded tablets is coming our way. In addition to this, the source also reports of a delay in the launch of the LePad slates, which will probably take place in the first quarter of next year and not this year end as planned.

Note that Lenovo’s portfolio already has the X series Tablets (for example the X201) which are actually convertible notebooks that can be turned into tablets, thanks to a swirling display panel. Although these are quite adequate from the enterprise point of view – one would still crave for the portability.

Although there are rumors of the enterprise-based tablets coming from the house of Lenovo, what hardware and software will power these devices is yet unknown. But Windows 7 can surely be expected as it will cater to enterprise needs more than the Android OS or the Apple iOS. If Lenovo goes ahead with this plan, the only competitor Lenovo will see in this segment is Cisco, which has a product here.

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