Lenovo, the Chinese PC giant has said today that it will release its LePad Android tablet by the end of the year.
Liu Jun, senior vice president and president at Lenovo’s Consumer Business Group, made the comments via an interview and the company later confirmed.
Lenovo’s decision should help the company get a good foothold in the Chinese market, which Apple has not focused on.
Adds Lenovo chairman Liu Chuanzhi: “If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, (Lenovo) would be in trouble.”
Earlier in the year, Lenovo began selling its own iPhone rival, the “LePhone.”
Apple has no plans for releasing the iPad in mainland China.
Result for: chinese market
Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday that the company expects an outcome in its dispute with the Chinese government soon. Schmidt made the comments on Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. “I’m going to use the word ’soon’, which I will not define otherwise,” he said.
“There is no specific timetable. Something will happen soon.” In Washington, Nicole Wong, the firm’s vice president and deputy general counsel, told the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that the company stands by its decision to stop censorship in China.
“(if) the option is that we will shutter our .cn property and leave the country, we are prepared to do that,” she said. At the same time, it was revealed that the United States is mulling a possible legal challenge to China’s Internet censorship and related policies which it claims hurt U.S. companies that invest in the Chinese market.
The recent spat between Google and China started in January when the search giant announced that it would stop censoring search results in the country and would leave the market if it had no other choice. The announcement followed a hack targeted at Google’s intellectual property and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Google said that more than 20 companies were targeted in the attack which originated in the country. Chinese officials said they were working with Google to resolve the dispute.
Result for: chinese market
The Chinese government has said it is ready and willing to punish hackers in the country that allegedly targeted Google Inc. and other companies earlier this year, if Google can provide evidence against the accused. Vice Minister Miao Wei said that Google has not filed a report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology over the cyber attacks or sought negotiations with the government.
“If Google has had evidence that the attacks came from China, the Chinese government will welcome them to provide the information and will severely punish the offenders according to the law,” Miao said. “We never support hacking attacks because China also falls victim to hacking attacks.”
As for Google’s threat to leave China following the events and ongoing tensions over mandated censorship, Miao said that the company didn’t notify the ministry that it is considering a withdrawal from the country either. “If Google decides to continue its business in China and abides by China’s laws, it’s welcome to stay,” he said.
“If the company chooses to withdraw from the Chinese market, it must go through certain procedures according to the law and regulations and deal with customers’ problems that may arise.” He went on to vow that China will continue to provide a sound investment environment for foreign investors and protect their legitimate rights.
