 Hey, češte, sem Vlad z The Verge. Sveč smo tukaj s Gianfranco Alanci, prezident EMEA regionu Lenovo. Veseli ste selekcije novi produkti dnevno. Pogledajte nam vse, kaj su? Veseli smo sekak novi produkti. Prvo, veseli smo sekak novi ThinkPad Ultrabook. To je najpomembnejša in najboljša Ultrabook v svetu, in najboljša. Če je zelo različna, je karbonna fibra, zato je materijal novi. Veseli smo karbonne fibre od 1992. Ne je zelo zelo novi. Realna različna je, da je karbonna fibra novi, kjer različno bi se Yetki každa slav ar kblizem, kar prid rajdo čprendro melodieskih slotje. Zdaj mi z�ad paint Something Sp embaixo lime剛iti prevelmente popping doubt novi, zato sami me je piva šank Sweet. sportsga never Novilni Cover kvaliverts sawна tvina na to obištime kam Emil€ nestajal, ni, na ko siensionoval, porque, in se ni jal pasó, je zahoran je dat o turns teinPE, tieh negatively iz rokega crease daroma je začel samo popoli uadi, do hundredalna st�� v我有, Oddajέ svi po d spilled nu možemo Boss ransom chance. ThinkPad and the Think PC branding mean today. How do you want people to react to it as consumers? Because you've diversified it. It isn't just the ThinkPad, professional business laptops. As you say, you now have carbon fiber bodies. You've never had that before in your laptops. You're introducing new designs like the chiclet keyboard design. You're kind of evolving it. So what would you say the brand means to people nowadays? I think that when you look at the ThinkPad, the meaning of the brand is still the same. First of all, a professional brand is still the brand we use to address big enterprises and global accounts. It means reliability, manageability, very strong products, very professional-like. Even when you think about professional products, design becomes important. It's always much nicer than maybe a ThinkPad one or two years ago in terms of design. But when you think about the meaning of the ThinkPad brand, I think it's still the same. It's a recognized, probably number one brand when you think about professional or commercial application. And we want to keep ThinkPad with this kind of brand reputation and brand definition. So you're sticking with the professional aspect, but do you not want to have the ThinkPad brand... Do you not want to push it more into the consumer market? Or do you still want for it to be seen as a professional product and for things like your idea line to fill the consumer space? I think we will continue to manage ThinkPad for commercial, for the professional space, and to have an idea brand for consumers. We also introduced some new products on the idea brand, which is an Ultrabook-like kind of product. It's not really an Ultrabook because it's a little bit thicker than... Oh, don't worry. They put Ultrabook labels and everything nowadays. Yeah, but the standard definition is 21mm. This is a little bit more than 21mm. But in terms of look and feel, it really looks like an Ultrabook. And it's a very, very affordable product because we will start from 499. If you think an Ultrabook today is 799, 899, 999. Fair enough. The reason I keep asking about the ThinkPad is because I myself consider myself more or less a consumer and my interests are more or less those of a consumer, but at the same time, I look at these professional devices, such as the ThinkPad, and I kind of think of them as aspirational devices. So yes, they're expensive, but the things that appeal to professionals are also the things that appeal to myself as well. So when you say professionals like carbon fiber because it gives you a rigid body and reliability, well, consumers like that too. So what I was really hoping, and I think a lot of people might be hoping, is for Lenovo to take the Think branding and that same standard of quality and then bring it down to more affordable prices maybe. Would you look to do that? If you develop a product with certain specs and certain features in terms of material and so on, of course, then you need to look at certain price points. Because to bring down the price point, you need to cut certain things. It's not that it's possible to bring down the price of the product independently from the manufacturing cost and from the material cost. That's understandable. And also, I wanted to ask you about something. You said that your primary business, your core business, is still PC. During your presentation today. And while that was happening, I really wanted to ask you, what does that mean anymore? Because particularly with Windows 8, Microsoft is changing what we think of PC. And the way that you described it is that the PC is changing as well. I think when we say that our core business is still PC because we believe that PC is evolving. PC is evolving in different form factor, different display size. It's not anymore a traditional notebook or desktop as it was perceived until yesterday, I would say. But it's still a PC. It's true. Microsoft with Windows 8 introduction is bringing a lot of new fun factor from tablet to a lot of different convertible or detachable or any kind of different idea you can think about. But it's still a PC. In the sense that it's still running within the traditional PC ecosystem. Which is Windows. Which is Windows. It's also becoming touch, which is of course different user experience. It's what we call PC plus definition. It's PC with the evolution of PC we see in the future. But it's still, when I look from technology point of view, and in terms of how you handle this kind of product, how you manage in terms of host R&D this kind of product, it's still I would say a PC. What do you mean by PC plus? What we mean for PC plus is all the other devices you can think about coming together with PC in the next coming quarters or year related to from one side Windows 8 introduction can be tablet or even other products like Android tablet. We also announced today two or three different Android tablets from 7 inches to 9 inches to 10 inches. And it's another portion of what we call PC plus. So it's I would say multiple devices with different screen sizes maybe even for different applications from user point of view. But still in the PC world. Speaking of the PC world, that's actually a great lead. We have to ask you about this. How do you feel about Microsoft Surface tablets? How do you feel about their presence now in the market? In the hardware market? What we feel I think it's very good that Microsoft came with the tablet showing that they are very confident in from one side Windows 8 and also tablet application with the Windows 8. We are not negative in the sense that it's another player in the hardware space. Fine. But I think on the other side it's a clear indication to consumer that they strongly believe and I think it can help the industry to establish Windows 8 not only for traditional PC but also for new from factor. We are not negative at all on Microsoft coming. But it's harder for you though, isn't it? Another competitor and what people think is a very strong competitor because Surface looks like a promising set of devices. Surface for sure is a very good device. And I think it will push the entire industry to develop good devices and to be more competitive. If I look at today when you look at this industry there are more or less three different ecosystems. Windows is one of the ecosystems. I think we have been working with Microsoft for a long period of time. It's a very good partner of us. We really don't see the problem of Microsoft coming, introducing a tablet and showing to the world what you can do with Windows 8. So your solution is just make a better tablet? It will push the industry to make a better tablet, yes. Which is good for the industry and for the consumer. Absolutely. And on that topic actually there has been this sort of trend particularly one that's identified by analysts of the industry to say that innovation is kind of moving towards the software side of things rather than hardware. Do you feel that's the case? That we are all kind of reaching the maximum that we can achieve with hardware innovation and now it's a matter of innovating on the software side of things? I think we will continue to see innovation on the hardware side. You also will continue to see innovation on the software side. What is really different in my opinion is that today probably you also need to think about how you integrate hardware and software together. And you need also innovation from an integration point of view. But I think we will continue to see innovation on hardware as well. And this is something Lenovo is actively looking into? And this is something where we are looking at this portion we are looking at the other portion as well. So how to integrate hardware and software when you think about tablet or even smartphone. That the integration part is bigger. But if you think from hardware point of view I don't think innovation is... We are at the end of innovation. We will see a lot of things coming in the next couple of years talking about innovation. Today the display is still rigid. Two, three years from now the display will be 100% flexible. Affordable and flexible because it's already possible but it's a little bit expensive. So you can think about devices that are totally different than the current phone factor. This is hardware innovation. I'm looking forward to it. On that topic actually I just wanted to bring you back to the carbon fiber use. Because one thing that also really excites me is can we see a carbon fiber think phone? Have you considered that? I think carbon fiber is good when you think about big surface. It's not a case that it has been used for the Boeing 787, right? Yeah. And there was not almost availability of carbon fiber in the world for a certain period of time. Because the plane industry was almost taking 100% of the capacity. Carbon fiber makes sense when you think about certain size. If you go to small size, in terms of weight you almost don't get anything because it's too small. And even in terms of material and rigidity of material it's not really making a big difference. Okay, so the benefit just isn't working cost and expense. Although I must say, again speaking from a consumer point of view, there are many, many people out there who would love just to buy it, just to be able to say they have a carbon fiber phone. Particularly when branded as a think phone. I mean, seriously, think about it. Just to quickly wrap up, I want to ask you about Intel and ARM. Because you've done two things which are novel with both companies. So on the Intel side you did the K800 phone over in China, which is one of the very first Intel Medfield phones, Intel moving to the smartphone arena. So firstly to ask, has that been a success for you? How has the reaction been? In China, I think on smartphone we are really very successful. We became number two. Right, the K800 specifically, how is that? It's running well, it's okay, yes. It's doing well. Any chance we can see that going global? On smartphone our strategy I think is very, very clear today. I think we want to continue to grow in China. We want to continue to build up our know-how and scale in China, where we have a strong brand and strong presence. It's a good combination of what you need in order to be successful on a smartphone. In the meantime we will look outside China and when we have the right dimension in terms of market share and also the right brand reputation or we build up a strong brand outside China in some region, in some country, we will also introduce a smartphone in the future. But for the time being I think the focus is on China and to make sure that we are doing well in China and we build up the right knowledge and the right capability in China. That's fair enough. And turning to the ARM side, ARM is now coming into the Windows-PC arena and you've done a Windows RT tablet, well tablet-laptop, because everybody seems to be doing this convertible hybrid device nowadays. It has the Yoga and it has Tegra 3. It's running Tegra 3. So would you say you're making a big bet on ARM and ARM-based PCs or is that more of an experiment for you? I think in the future we will see a good combination of different operating systems and different CPUs to be successful. I think Intel is good for certain applications, ARM can be good for other applications, it depends on which kind of solution you want to bring to the user, but I think there is a space for both. And just finally, I know you've been asked this question a whole heap of times, but I'm curious and I have to know, you used to be CEO of Acer. You're now one of the leading figures at Lenovo. I'm just hoping you might be able to compare the two companies for us in a very general sense, in terms of their culture and ambition and I guess where each company wants to be. Would you say they're very different or what similarities might there be between them? Companies for sure are different. I think Lenovo is also due probably to the acquisition of IBM, how they build up the business during the last few years. I think it's a truly global company. You don't find too many PC companies that are really global companies today. And when I say global, I mean not a company with 200 offices around the world, because this is really simple. You open different offices around the world and you have 200 offices. When I say global, I mean a company that is run by people, executives coming from different regions of the world, with different culture, with different experiences, so a good integration of people understanding also different market situations and so on. And this is I think it's almost unique in this industry, if I look at the picture today. The other important thing or the other big difference, if I compare with the other companies, is that I think Lenovo has a very strong commercial business and also a strong consumer business, at least in China, consumer business. But we want also to develop consumer business outside China, so it's a very good balance between commercial and consumer. And again, there are probably not too many companies with a good balance between commercial and consumer when I look at the PC arena today. Probably only one, frankly speaking. So I think the other... Which company are you referring to when you say only one? HP. Okay. It's not so difficult, because all the other are either focused on consumer or focused on commercial, but it's very difficult to find the people... No, there was actually some speculation about HP abandoning its consumer PC business all our back. But if I look at what they said until yesterday, I don't think so. Then I don't know if you know something more, but I don't think so. It's an interesting perspective. And the other thing in my mind is that it's very, very different. Again, if I look at Lenovo, we have a very strong base in China, and China is by far the largest market for PC. And if you look at PC history, usually companies that have been very successful in PC, it is because they build up the business or they start coming from a strong home base. And then they've been able to build outside. So I think these are the three major differences. I think global, strong base in China, so strong base in the largest market in the world, and good balance between commercial and consumer. So in summary, what you're saying is first you take China, then you take the world. Yeah, like all that's saying. First you grow in China on certain things, and then you can go outside. But because this business is a matter of scale. So if you have a good, strong home foot where you can develop scale, if you look at the history of PC, most of the companies were coming from the US, not because they were better than other companies, simply because they had a big market, a home market where they could start and they could build up knowledge and scale. All right. Thank you very much, Uta. Thank you. We appreciate it.
 Hey, češte, sem Vlad z The Verge. Sveč smo tukaj s Gianfranco Alanci,
 prezident EMEA regionu Lenovo.
 Veseli ste selekcije novi produkti dnevno.
 Pogledajte nam vse, kaj su?
 Veseli smo sekak novi produkti.
 Prvo, veseli smo sekak novi ThinkPad Ultrabook.
 To je najpomembnejša in najboljša Ultrabook v svetu, in najboljša.
 Če je zelo različna, je karbonna fibra,
 zato je materijal novi.
 Veseli smo karbonne fibre od 1992.
 Ne je zelo zelo novi.
 Realna različna je, da je karbonna fibra novi,
 kjer različno bi se Yetki každa slav ar kblizem,
 kar prid rajdo čprendro melodieskih slotje.
 Zdaj mi z�ad paint Something Sp embaixo lime剛iti
 prevelmente popping doubt novi,
 zato sami me je piva šank Sweet.
 sportsga never
 Novilni Cover
 kvaliverts
 saw
на tvina
 na to obištime kam Emil€ nestajal,
 ni, na ko siensionoval,
 porque,
 in se ni jal pasó,
 je zahoran je dat o
 turns teinPE,
 tieh negatively
 iz rokega crease daroma je
 začel
 samo popoli uadi,
 do hundredalna
 st�� v我有,
 Oddajέ svi
 po d spilled nu možemo
 Boss ransom chance.
 ThinkPad and the Think PC branding mean today.
 How do you want people to react to it as consumers?
 Because you've diversified it.
 It isn't just the ThinkPad, professional business laptops.
 As you say, you now have carbon fiber bodies.
 You've never had that before in your laptops.
 You're introducing new designs like the chiclet keyboard design.
 You're kind of evolving it.
 So what would you say the brand means to people nowadays?
 I think that when you look at the ThinkPad,
 the meaning of the brand is still the same.
 First of all, a professional brand is still the brand we use
 to address big enterprises and global accounts.
 It means reliability, manageability, very strong products,
 very professional-like.
 Even when you think about professional products,
 design becomes important.
 It's always much nicer than maybe a ThinkPad one or two years ago
 in terms of design.
 But when you think about the meaning of the ThinkPad brand,
 I think it's still the same.
 It's a recognized, probably number one brand
 when you think about professional or commercial application.
 And we want to keep ThinkPad with this kind of brand reputation
 and brand definition.
 So you're sticking with the professional aspect,
 but do you not want to have the ThinkPad brand...
 Do you not want to push it more into the consumer market?
 Or do you still want for it to be seen as a professional product
 and for things like your idea line to fill the consumer space?
 I think we will continue to manage ThinkPad for commercial,
 for the professional space, and to have an idea brand for consumers.
 We also introduced some new products on the idea brand,
 which is an Ultrabook-like kind of product.
 It's not really an Ultrabook because it's a little bit thicker than...
 Oh, don't worry.
 They put Ultrabook labels and everything nowadays.
 Yeah, but the standard definition is 21mm.
 This is a little bit more than 21mm.
 But in terms of look and feel, it really looks like an Ultrabook.
 And it's a very, very affordable product
 because we will start from 499.
 If you think an Ultrabook today is 799, 899, 999.
 Fair enough. The reason I keep asking about the ThinkPad
 is because I myself consider myself more or less a consumer
 and my interests are more or less those of a consumer,
 but at the same time, I look at these professional devices,
 such as the ThinkPad, and I kind of think of them as aspirational devices.
 So yes, they're expensive, but the things that appeal to professionals
 are also the things that appeal to myself as well.
 So when you say professionals like carbon fiber
 because it gives you a rigid body and reliability,
 well, consumers like that too.
 So what I was really hoping, and I think a lot of people might be hoping,
 is for Lenovo to take the Think branding and that same standard of quality
 and then bring it down to more affordable prices maybe.
 Would you look to do that?
 If you develop a product with certain specs and certain features
 in terms of material and so on, of course,
 then you need to look at certain price points.
 Because to bring down the price point, you need to cut certain things.
 It's not that it's possible to bring down the price of the product
 independently from the manufacturing cost and from the material cost.
 That's understandable. And also, I wanted to ask you about something.
 You said that your primary business, your core business, is still PC.
 During your presentation today.
 And while that was happening, I really wanted to ask you,
 what does that mean anymore?
 Because particularly with Windows 8, Microsoft is changing what we think of PC.
 And the way that you described it is that the PC is changing as well.
 I think when we say that our core business is still PC
 because we believe that PC is evolving.
 PC is evolving in different form factor, different display size.
 It's not anymore a traditional notebook or desktop
 as it was perceived until yesterday, I would say.
 But it's still a PC. It's true.
 Microsoft with Windows 8 introduction is bringing a lot of new fun factor
 from tablet to a lot of different convertible or detachable
 or any kind of different idea you can think about.
 But it's still a PC.
 In the sense that it's still running within the traditional PC ecosystem.
 Which is Windows.
 Which is Windows. It's also becoming touch, which is of course different user experience.
 It's what we call PC plus definition.
 It's PC with the evolution of PC we see in the future.
 But it's still, when I look from technology point of view,
 and in terms of how you handle this kind of product,
 how you manage in terms of host R&D this kind of product,
 it's still I would say a PC.
 What do you mean by PC plus?
 What we mean for PC plus is all the other devices you can think about
 coming together with PC in the next coming quarters or year
 related to from one side Windows 8 introduction
 can be tablet or even other products like Android tablet.
 We also announced today two or three different Android tablets
 from 7 inches to 9 inches to 10 inches.
 And it's another portion of what we call PC plus.
 So it's I would say multiple devices with different screen sizes
 maybe even for different applications from user point of view.
 But still in the PC world.
 Speaking of the PC world, that's actually a great lead.
 We have to ask you about this.
 How do you feel about Microsoft Surface tablets?
 How do you feel about their presence now in the market?
 In the hardware market?
 What we feel I think it's very good that Microsoft came with the tablet
 showing that they are very confident in from one side Windows 8
 and also tablet application with the Windows 8.
 We are not negative in the sense that it's another player in the hardware space.
 Fine. But I think on the other side it's a clear indication to consumer
 that they strongly believe and I think it can help the industry
 to establish Windows 8 not only for traditional PC
 but also for new from factor.
 We are not negative at all on Microsoft coming.
 But it's harder for you though, isn't it?
 Another competitor and what people think is a very strong competitor
 because Surface looks like a promising set of devices.
 Surface for sure is a very good device.
 And I think it will push the entire industry to develop good devices
 and to be more competitive.
 If I look at today when you look at this industry
 there are more or less three different ecosystems.
 Windows is one of the ecosystems.
 I think we have been working with Microsoft for a long period of time.
 It's a very good partner of us.
 We really don't see the problem of Microsoft coming, introducing a tablet
 and showing to the world what you can do with Windows 8.
 So your solution is just make a better tablet?
 It will push the industry to make a better tablet, yes.
 Which is good for the industry and for the consumer.
 Absolutely. And on that topic actually
 there has been this sort of trend
 particularly one that's identified by analysts of the industry
 to say that innovation is kind of moving towards the software side of things
 rather than hardware.
 Do you feel that's the case?
 That we are all kind of reaching the maximum that we can achieve
 with hardware innovation and now it's a matter of innovating on the software side of things?
 I think we will continue to see innovation on the hardware side.
 You also will continue to see innovation on the software side.
 What is really different in my opinion is that today
 probably you also need to think about how you integrate hardware and software together.
 And you need also innovation from an integration point of view.
 But I think we will continue to see innovation on hardware as well.
 And this is something Lenovo is actively looking into?
 And this is something where we are looking at this portion
 we are looking at the other portion as well.
 So how to integrate hardware and software when you think about tablet or even smartphone.
 That the integration part is bigger.
 But if you think from hardware point of view I don't think innovation is...
 We are at the end of innovation.
 We will see a lot of things coming in the next couple of years
 talking about innovation.
 Today the display is still rigid.
 Two, three years from now the display will be 100% flexible.
 Affordable and flexible because it's already possible but it's a little bit expensive.
 So you can think about devices that are totally different than the current phone factor.
 This is hardware innovation.
 I'm looking forward to it.
 On that topic actually I just wanted to bring you back to the carbon fiber use.
 Because one thing that also really excites me is
 can we see a carbon fiber think phone?
 Have you considered that?
 I think carbon fiber is good when you think about big surface.
 It's not a case that it has been used for the Boeing 787, right?
 Yeah.
 And there was not almost availability of carbon fiber in the world for a certain period of time.
 Because the plane industry was almost taking 100% of the capacity.
 Carbon fiber makes sense when you think about certain size.
 If you go to small size, in terms of weight you almost don't get anything because it's too small.
 And even in terms of material and rigidity of material it's not really making a big difference.
 Okay, so the benefit just isn't working cost and expense.
 Although I must say, again speaking from a consumer point of view,
 there are many, many people out there who would love just to buy it,
 just to be able to say they have a carbon fiber phone.
 Particularly when branded as a think phone.
 I mean, seriously, think about it.
 Just to quickly wrap up, I want to ask you about Intel and ARM.
 Because you've done two things which are novel with both companies.
 So on the Intel side you did the K800 phone over in China,
 which is one of the very first Intel Medfield phones, Intel moving to the smartphone arena.
 So firstly to ask, has that been a success for you?
 How has the reaction been?
 In China, I think on smartphone we are really very successful.
 We became number two.
 Right, the K800 specifically, how is that?
 It's running well, it's okay, yes.
 It's doing well. Any chance we can see that going global?
 On smartphone our strategy I think is very, very clear today.
 I think we want to continue to grow in China.
 We want to continue to build up our know-how and scale in China,
 where we have a strong brand and strong presence.
 It's a good combination of what you need in order to be successful on a smartphone.
 In the meantime we will look outside China and when we have the right dimension in terms of market share
 and also the right brand reputation or we build up a strong brand outside China in some region, in some country,
 we will also introduce a smartphone in the future.
 But for the time being I think the focus is on China and to make sure that we are doing well in China
 and we build up the right knowledge and the right capability in China.
 That's fair enough.
 And turning to the ARM side, ARM is now coming into the Windows-PC arena
 and you've done a Windows RT tablet, well tablet-laptop,
 because everybody seems to be doing this convertible hybrid device nowadays.
 It has the Yoga and it has Tegra 3. It's running Tegra 3.
 So would you say you're making a big bet on ARM and ARM-based PCs
 or is that more of an experiment for you?
 I think in the future we will see a good combination of different operating systems and different CPUs to be successful.
 I think Intel is good for certain applications, ARM can be good for other applications,
 it depends on which kind of solution you want to bring to the user,
 but I think there is a space for both.
 And just finally, I know you've been asked this question a whole heap of times,
 but I'm curious and I have to know, you used to be CEO of Acer.
 You're now one of the leading figures at Lenovo.
 I'm just hoping you might be able to compare the two companies for us in a very general sense,
 in terms of their culture and ambition and I guess where each company wants to be.
 Would you say they're very different or what similarities might there be between them?
 Companies for sure are different.
 I think Lenovo is also due probably to the acquisition of IBM,
 how they build up the business during the last few years.
 I think it's a truly global company.
 You don't find too many PC companies that are really global companies today.
 And when I say global, I mean not a company with 200 offices around the world,
 because this is really simple.
 You open different offices around the world and you have 200 offices.
 When I say global, I mean a company that is run by people,
 executives coming from different regions of the world, with different culture, with different experiences,
 so a good integration of people understanding also different market situations and so on.
 And this is I think it's almost unique in this industry, if I look at the picture today.
 The other important thing or the other big difference, if I compare with the other companies,
 is that I think Lenovo has a very strong commercial business and also a strong consumer business,
 at least in China, consumer business.
 But we want also to develop consumer business outside China,
 so it's a very good balance between commercial and consumer.
 And again, there are probably not too many companies with a good balance between commercial and consumer
 when I look at the PC arena today.
 Probably only one, frankly speaking.
 So I think the other...
 Which company are you referring to when you say only one?
 HP.
 Okay.
 It's not so difficult, because all the other are either focused on consumer or focused on commercial,
 but it's very difficult to find the people...
 No, there was actually some speculation about HP abandoning its consumer PC business all our back.
 But if I look at what they said until yesterday, I don't think so.
 Then I don't know if you know something more, but I don't think so.
 It's an interesting perspective.
 And the other thing in my mind is that it's very, very different.
 Again, if I look at Lenovo, we have a very strong base in China,
 and China is by far the largest market for PC.
 And if you look at PC history, usually companies that have been very successful in PC,
 it is because they build up the business or they start coming from a strong home base.
 And then they've been able to build outside.
 So I think these are the three major differences.
 I think global, strong base in China, so strong base in the largest market in the world,
 and good balance between commercial and consumer.
 So in summary, what you're saying is first you take China, then you take the world.
 Yeah, like all that's saying.
 First you grow in China on certain things, and then you can go outside.
 But because this business is a matter of scale.
 So if you have a good, strong home foot where you can develop scale,
 if you look at the history of PC, most of the companies were coming from the US,
 not because they were better than other companies, simply because they had a big market,
 a home market where they could start and they could build up knowledge and scale.
 All right. Thank you very much, Uta.
 Thank you.
 We appreciate it.