If you take stock of the major changes in your PC over the past two years, you'll see that after the pandemic, it seems to be gradually returning to your productivity center. In the past two years, you have more remote meetings, many times you need to take some notes while meeting, and even share some documents, you will find that the "mobile office" of a mobile phone is beginning to be difficult to meet your work needs, so you move your laptop out again.
This is a silhouette of the impact of the epidemic on us. "Productivity giant" Microsoft has also articulated this trend, even naming it a "hybrid office" concept.
According to the 2021 Q4 and annual PC market research report released by IDC, a well-known market research organization, global PC (desktop, laptop and workstation) shipments reached 92.65 million units in the fourth quarter, an increase of 1.0% year-on-year. Total PC shipments for the full year of 2021 reached 348.8 million units, up 14.8% year-on-year and the highest level since 2012.
IDC believes that 2021 is a strong return year for the PC market, and continues to be optimistic about the overall performance of the PC market under the future trend of hybrid office development. In the report, Lenovo Group contributed 21.7 million units of shipments in the fourth quarter, leading the global manufacturers with a market share of 23.4%, while winning the 2021 global PC championship again with an annual shipment of 81.93 million units and a market share of 23.5%.
At CES 2022, Lenovo unveiled the third generation (Gen3) of its new ThinkBook Plus, showcasing the tech company's new exploration and innovation of laptop forms and experiences. Lenovo believes that from the experience point of view, a device that can balance work and play is more valuable, and a device that can carry and exert greater productivity at the same time is equally important.
The emergence of ThinkBook Plus Gen3, on the one hand, made me see this trend more clearly, and on the other hand, it also made us feel that PC innovation is still promising.
With the launch of ThinkBook Plus Gen3, we also had the opportunity to chat with Yu Hai, senior vice president of Lenovo Group and general manager of the global small and medium-sized enterprise business, about Lenovo's products, technologies and solutions, and even some new trends in the future of hybrid office.
ThinkBook Plus: A new form of hybrid office
At CES2022, the launch of the ThinkBook Plus Gen3 attracted huge attention, because it was not the same as the traditional notebooks we saw: in addition to the main screen, it also came with a second screen.
ThinkBook Plus Gen3
It is equipped with a 120Hz high refresh rate screen with a 21:10 ratio main screen and a resolution of 3072x1440, and on the right side of the keyboard area, it also adds a "touch function screen" that can be touched or expanded to display the contents of the home screen.
As can be seen from its name, ThinkBook Plus has developed the third generation, and Lenovo gave the product Plus the name of the product for the computer itself, which means more to give.
Perhaps we can start with the origin of the ThinkBook Plus series.
ThinkBook Plus is a special item in Lenovo ThinkBook product lineup, before that, the ThinkBook Plus series has gone through two generations.
"Whole work" on the screen is an old tradition of the ThinkBook Plus series. From the first generation, thinkBook Plus Gen1 added an electronic ink screen to the top cover for the first time, which can be used as an electronic notebook independently for built-in notes, or can be handwritten with installed note-taking software.
ThinkBook Plus Gen1
Yu Hai, senior vice president of Lenovo Group and general manager of global small and medium-sized enterprise business, said that the first generation of products actually saw the needs of some business users, and they found that many business users of small and medium-sized enterprises often have to take their notebooks with them on business trips, and even bring a pen, and then many business users will also take electronic paper readers to read novels. So Lenovo has the prototype of the first generation of ThinkBook Plus products using electronic ink screens.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen2 has been upgraded again on the basis of the first generation, expanding the size of the electronic ink screen on the top cover to 12 inches, while also enabling practical functions such as receiving notifications, replying to messages, and sending and receiving emails. Gen2 is actually a process of refinement, Gen2's ink screen is larger than Gen1's screen, Lenovo's engineering team and partners have optimized the refresh rate and display effect, while the overall product is also lighter and thinner, "more is the product experience of the improvement."
In addition to the iterative ink screen products ThinkBook Plus Gen1 and Gen2, Lenovo created a new ThinkBook Plus Gen3 this year, although it continues the name of the previous two generations in the generation, it is actually a bold technological innovation attempt of the ThinkBook Plus product series.
"With more than two years of research, we found that everyone uses notebooks to work longer and longer, users have generated more and more new needs, they need a larger screen notebook, has become a main productivity tool, while a small screen can not meet their needs, Lenovo to create ThinkBook Plus Gen3 dual-screen notebook, hope to provide a new possibility for customers to create an efficient office."
On the right side of the standard keyboard on the ThinkBook Plus Gen3, the second screen of the ThinkBook Plus has an 800x1280 resolution and uses an 8-inch touch screen. Lenovo said that it can not only be used as a second display to carry around, expanding the content of the home screen, such as a longer table, multi-person chat window, and with the help of Lenovo's development of special software for it, it can also expand a variety of uses.
Of course, it's not just a ribbon Feature. According to the description of Lenovo's product developers, this screen can achieve stylus input, with the design software can also be used as a drawing board and color palette; when programmers write code, the development program can be stretched to this small screen to achieve "waterfall" writing; in addition, this screen also has a lot of built-in practical functions, such as as a calculator, notepad, etc.; Finally, Lenovo mobile phone or Motorola smart phone, you can project the content of the mobile phone to the second screen, so that the mobile phone and the computer work together more smoothly.
In fact, this is also a creative point that surprises Pin Play: in many functional designs, we actually see the concept of "multi-screen collaboration".
The inspiration comes from many people next to the computer, often put their own mobile phones, or tablets, which proves people's need for the second screen to display content, and the creation of a second screen can be interactive with your third-party device (currently do not know that the device does not support other than Lenovo) to achieve the effect of brushing the phone next to the computer.
This also means that although Lenovo is a company that provides hardware products for consumers, software development is equally important in the product ecosystem, so it has invested a lot of software development work on ThinkBook Plus Gen3, which also includes customized development of many third-party software adaptations.
Yu Hai said that Lenovo has also developed innovative software, through which a large number of third-party software (to this) can be adapted to do targeted development for better adaptation to the dual-screen experience of ThinkBook Plus Gen3.
It can be understood that behind the Plus series, Lenovo's understanding of how a smart PC should match current productivity is reflected. In this process, hardware companies also need a lot of software engineering, Lenovo with soft and hard service integration, so that PC products have a new creativity.
A new trend in hybrid office
ThinkBook Plus Gen3 is Lenovo's latest achievement in industrial design, user experience, and software development. Yu Hai, as the general manager of Lenovo Group's global SME business, believes that "new products, solutions and services designed for the SME employee experience will pave the way for a smoother and more flexible working environment." Exclusive and innovative products like ThinkBook Plus Gen3 will play a key role in driving new ways of working, creating efficiencies and new opportunities, and helping SMEs grow, further driving socio-economic recovery. ”
More than just powerful, thinkBook Plus Gen3 is equally well-equipped in terms of data security, connectivity, and remote work needs. In Yuhai's view, the setting of ThinkBook Plus Gen3 is also more in line with the productivity needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Yu Hai said: "We must look at small and medium-sized enterprises with new eyes", he believes that today's large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, is not the kind of old-fashioned enterprises we used to think, more are high-tech industries, especially the founders of small and medium-sized enterprises, including managers, including the main employees are the younger generation. These younger generations have been exposed to many of these high-tech innovation products since childhood, and they are digital natives, so the acceptance of this innovative product will be higher.
Yu Hai, Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group and General Manager of Global SME Business
"SMEs emphasize productivity, employees work more flexibly, and employees are free to choose the tools they believe will best provide productivity." Yu Hai believes that from this point of view, ThinkBook Plus Gen3 is a product that is very suitable for today's small and medium-sized enterprise customers.
Under the trend of "mixed office" in China, the demand for equipment is rising. First of all, not only PCs, but also a lot of smart device applications. In addition, the technological innovation requirements of enterprise customers for products are also constantly improving, and the products with simple configuration and single function that enterprises have been equipped with in the past will also usher in a wave of new iterations, and the hybrid office will be a comprehensive improvement for the overall operational efficiency of the enterprise.
More importantly, under the mixed office, the IT services of small and medium-sized enterprises are very weak, such as the equipment is broken during remote meetings. How do I serve customers remotely? How to ensure enterprise data communication and security In this process, hardware companies should also strengthen the ability of service solutions and remote product assistance. In fact, this also gives companies like Lenovo the ability to provide end-to-end solutions some new market opportunities.
Yu Hai said that Lenovo is rooted in China and has been providing software and hardware integration solutions and services for Chinese enterprises in the past few years, such as Lenovo Baiying, which is a one-stop IT service platform integrating IT services, SaaS ecology, DaaS services and enterprise office management. Lenovo Should rely on the intelligent IT engine "DynaSky" to empower the digitalization, intelligent transformation and upgrading of the industry, and is committed to becoming a new IT partner for customers.
Globally, the impact of COVID-19 on the economy is clear, with SMEs facing just as serious challenges as large enterprises. Lenovo Group believes that under the "end-edge-cloud-network-intelligence" technology framework, using innovative technologies to strengthen the "hybrid office" capabilities of enterprise customers themselves to adapt to the accelerating digital transformation process and achieve higher operational efficiency through sustainable development, SMEs will provide a steady stream of strong impetus for economic recovery.
(The title image is quoted from the network)