Lenovo kills Skylight OS in favor of Android, U1 Hybrid and Skylight smartbook being shelved
By Nilay Patel 
posted May 28th 2010 4:39PM
posted May 28th 2010 4:39PM
We spoke to Lenovo for clarification and it sounds like things are in considerable flux at the moment: the company told us it wants to tap into Android's apps and ecosystem, but it's invested something like 18-24 months into building Skylight OS products and it's going to rethink and retool while it transitions to Google's OS -- although the underlying ideas of the Skylight and U1 Hybrid will live on in future devices, neither will come to market as announced. We were also told that Lenovo is now targeting Q4 as a launch date for Android-based devices, so we'll see what happens -- it'll be a sad day for the gadget world if the U1 fails to live on in some way.
After careful consideration of market conditions and user feedback, Lenovo has decided to focus its resources on building a family of next-generation mobile internet devices based upon open technologies such as (but not limited to) the Android kernel, similar to the Lenovo smartphone, which is available for sale in China now.
As a result of Lenovo's strategic shift towards open standards such as an Android kernel based environment, the Company has shelved its plans to release the initial version of the Skylight smartbook that featured a proprietary Linux-based OS.
Lenovo remains committed to working with our strategic partners to deliver innovative products in the growing mobile internet space, including the aforementioned smartphones and smartbooks, as well as exploring innovative new concepts that continue to "push-the-envelope" like the U1 hybrid PC.
@hated one
even if you only take the EVO 4G as the only iphone killer, it was still less than 14 years from iphones release to EVO's release, and many iphone killing phones have come before the EVO
thats assuming your counting the current iphone and not the pretty bad first edition (in comparison to the current one!)
@mnhthebest
paha, man, this is the best come back to any of the 'your battery sux' comments, i commend you sir XD
but yeah, ipad isnt the only tablet about and isnt even one of the best, sure it works nice and has some nice apps (which most people who own an ipad own an iphone, so they can play them on the iphone...) but the competition is still raging when it comes to productivity and usefulness :)
@mnhthebest
My company bought some Touchsmarts six months back, which I had the pleasure of setting up, and I can say confidently that any tablet with a desktop OS is unusable (also speaking as the former owner of a Toshiba convertible, running XP.) No matter how MS tries to package it, Windows 7 can only be used properly with a mouse. I'm looking to Google, Apple, and the new HP(WebOS) for touch solutions on tablets.
hated one iz an obvious apple fanboi who obviously is in love with hiz lord Jobs and who probly lookz simaler to the comic book guy in the simpsons agree?
Obvious troll is OBVIOUS!
I'm no marketing genius but I'm guessing that if you are trying to tout the awesomeness of your tablet, maybe its best to show it doing something other than playing solitaire.
@hated one iPad is a slate device, i really wouldnt call it a tablet in the same way i would call a 2730p EliteBook or ThinkPad X201 a tablet. So i guess no i dont agree that iPad is the only tablet especially since the ones mentioned are so awesomely powerful and useful. But the iPad IS the only slate device, just like the iPhone is the only next gen consumer smartphone on ATT which has helped sales for both products. Agree? never mind youre a fanboy i dont care if you do or not
@HoldenMccrotch
none of those 'iphone killers' have managed to kill the iPhone. Many of them managed to kill themselves tho.
LOL
Another one bites the dust. The iPad is racking up a pretty nice body count so early in the game.
@dorothymantooth you know, i like android and webos for phones but i feel like i could never bring myself to buy a tablet that isnt running a full OS, with tablets being more popular now maybe Microsoft will get their asses together and offer a Windows7 tablet version that isnt just a large phone experience, idk maybe its just me but i want my tablet to also be a high end laptop
@Liquidmark "iphone killer" is a bit of a deceptive label, you cant "beat" the iphone because its the only phone apple makes, to beat it you would have to make apple less trendy in the publics eye and thats impossible because we americans love shiny things. So people sit and compare iphone sales to individual phones made by other companies when in reality RIM crushes apple sales, but no one Blackberry has the sales numbers of the iPhone because you there is so much variety and choice from RIM. Blackberry sells more phones than apple and has a bigger marketshare... that being said this tactic clearly works for apple because they can say no other phone can match the iPhones sales, but thats only because everyone else gives you so many options and each platform has so many OEMs
No! That U1 Hybrid seemed so promising!
not surprised. CES is just one major vaporware spectacle.
I actually really like the idea of a laptop that's screen pops out and turns into a tablet. But I'm not buying a smartbook running a mobile OS and I'm not buying a netbook that still has piss poor specs.
Sorry. You haven't quite sold me on this Lenovo.
really bad move!
Android is not for tablets, google dont seemt to glad to approve that concept. So you dont get the market, and no proper support. The other alternative from google is Chrome OS, which sucks, since its webbased... How well did the JooJoo do, now again? Sure, google will do better, but the world is not ready for web-exclusive devices.
At this point there is really not a good alternative for the tablet OS, except running Win7, and that drains the battery...
They should have talked to Nokia/Intel, and gotten in on that MeeGo thing... sure, its not ready, dut at least its an full OS, made for simpler hardware, and with touchsupport coming up.
Well the one demo I saw showed a very unresponsive beta touch screen so perhaps it isn't much of a loss.
Still, it would be cool to see an Apple version in MacBook Pro form factor (like a fancy aluminum version of the clam case). Then it would run iPhone OS 4, Android, Mac OS X Snow Leopard,Windows 7, and Linux.
Funny, I was just telling my dad yesterday how I was looking at the U1 and how it was coming out in a few days... and then I read this. xD Ah well. I really liked the idea - two OS's or not..