Lenovo talks up LePhone, shows off app store ahead of May launch
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 20th 2010 3:45PM
posted April 20th 2010 3:45PM
Lenovo's Android-based LePhone (not LePhono, sadly) may not be officially launching in China until next month, but the company did just hold a launch event of sorts in the country, in which it revealed a few new details and did a fair bit of boasting. According to The Wall Street Journal, Lenovo says that it's aiming to sell "millions" of the phones in the next five years, and "tens of millions" after that -- although not just involving this particular phone, obviously. Lenovo COO Rory Read also reportedly further added that the company is ready for a "tough fight" against Apple's iPhone, and that Lenovo will have a "better brand position" that RIM, which hasn't yet gained a significant foothold in China. That's certainly plenty ambitious for a company new to the cellphone space, and should no doubt only further fuel those rumors of a certain acquisition. In other le news, Lenovo also apparently further demonstrated the tweaked version of Android that the handset will use (first seen at CES), and it has shown off its own app store for the first time, which can already be browsed at the site linked below.
@Eternity
cosigned
@sweet greggo Why the fuck not? Lenovo is a great hardware company. If HTC buys Palm, who the fuck is gonna make all those awesome innovative Android handsets? Lenovo is trying to takeover the smartphone market, I don't like the skylight OS because it of the UI so it would be a shame to have it on such awesome hardware. Besides we want Lenovo to penetrate the U.S market. I'd like to have other options besides Android since Win 7 and iPhone are both fail on arrival for my purposes.
I dont even wanna hear about Lenovo until you announce the Worldwide Debut of a beefed up Oms running webOS which they secretly purchased... and from then on i ONLY want to hear about Lenovo, although the OMS running android on 4g is also acceptable
They need some dude with a beret and a faux-French accent to introduce this phone.
My favorite feature is the badly rendered screen.
yeah launching in china will definitely give you the head-start you need to reach "millions" sold /sarcasm
@iName They are a chinese company and who better to be guinea pigs than their own people before expanding.
@iName
I was going to agree with you before I saw the sarcasm tag.
I like the idea.
questions though...is there a screen on the backside for when the phone is closed with the keyboard? or will it at least hold in place with the keyboard against the back?
next concern after that does the keyboard have an extra battery as a bonus to having to carry this around?
also, is there a camera on both sides? this could have multiple uses. but, video conferencing would be awesome.
@digits09 there is a screen on top of it. see here http://gizmodo.com/5445444/lenovo-lephone-gallery/gallery/4
@digits09 forget it, i failed
While I am no fan of either Lenovo's quality control or strategic thinking (as I type away on a Lenovo Thinkpad that is BY FAR the worst computer I have ever owned), I'm interested in this phone for the simple fact that it seems to be the only phone on the horizon that has:
a) 1ghz Snapdragon
b) QWERTY keyboard
c) Android
I would prefer it be made by somebody other than Lenovo, and I would prefer that it come with a keyboard that's, you know, attached to the phone... but at this point, I'll take whatever I can get that has the three features that I want.
LePhail.
Lenovo will sell millions of these in China and about 5 in the rest of the world.
That's one sexy looking phone. Let's hope it pans out.
i love the whole detachable keyboard combo (not to mention the design of the thing)
if they'll bring this to europe with froyo and good hw specs, it could just be my next phone