Not long ago, we launched the "Finale" content of the Hopen OS archaeological series, and drew an end to the historical research project of the first independent mobile operating system in China with the existing collection of real machines at hand.
However, in the process of researching the history of Hopen OS and gathering relevant information, it became more and more obvious that many people may have overlooked. That is, Lenovo's enthusiasm for the domestic independent computing ecology, and its contribution to it, is likely to be far beyond everyone's imagination.
Lenovo's contribution to the autonomous computing ecosystem has been around since the beginning
As early as September 3, 1999, Hopen OS, China's first autonomous mobile operating system, held a high-profile press conference in the Great Hall of the People. However, friends who have read the relevant content of our Sanyi Life should remember that the initial market positioning of Hopen OS (Internet set-top box) is actually a bit unrealistic. Fortunately, they transformed very quickly, and it only took half a year to complete the porting of Hopen OS 1.0 version to handheld mobile devices and the adaptation of related software.
Or there is another possibility, in fact, a considerable part of this transplanting and adaptation process is actually done by its de facto first manufacturer, Lenovo itself.
On the one hand, this is because Lenovo released the Dimensity 810 in June 2000, which is also the first handheld computer in history to be equipped with the Hopen OS operating system. According to the relevant article of "Guangming Daily" on October 25, 2000, the price of the Dimensity 810 handheld computer was 2380 yuan, but it had a true 32-bit CPU with several times the performance of other products in the same period (at that time, the vast majority of handheld computers were still using 8-bit 6502 chips) and extremely delicate multi-level grayscale LCD screen, and supported multi-task background operation. Obviously, Lenovo made a lot of determination to promote this domestic operating system handheld computer at that time.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the software ecology of Dimensity 810, it has a wealth of built-in software that can be called outrageous, such as BMI calculation, legal documents, national tourist attraction information, etc., and the quality is generally higher than that of the award-winning works of the "Hopen OS Software Development Competition" a few years later. And none of them appeared on the Hopen OS terminals of other manufacturers in the future, so it is not difficult to speculate that this is very likely that Lenovo has developed a lot of pre-installed apps for Hopen OS.
Not only that, Lenovo even designed a set of software expansion solutions based on the magic modified CF memory card for the original Hopen OS, and called it "Lenovo Variety Card". According to our measurements, the contents of the card are encrypted and can only be read by Hopen OS. You should know that the original version of Hopen OS at that time did not open the SDK to the public, so it theoretically did not have a software installation interface that was directly open to users. Lenovo obviously intends to use a method similar to "cassette leasing" to realize the software ecological expansion of the early domestic operating system in disguise.
More attentive than the system developers, but the results are not as good as they should be
It is a pity that Hopen OS, the first mobile operating system that is truly purely domestic, has obviously not made a "good start" on the consumer side. But as one of the earliest promoters of the domestic operating system, Lenovo does not seem to be discouraged by this.
Because just a year later, they released the Hopen OS 2.0 version and released the Dimensity 911, which is one of the most influential models in the entire history of Hopen OS. Compared with the previous Dimensity 810, the Dimensity 911 adopts a thinner and lighter vertical screen shape, and uses a built-in lithium battery solution, and also adds a "shuttle" scroll button on the side of the fuselage.
Interestingly, the operating logic of this side shuttle button has not been used by Hopen OS production equipment since then, but it did appear on the last NEC Hopen OS engineering machine we can find. So we're not sure if it's an invention of Lenovo or a code added to Hopen OS 2.0 itself.
But what is certain is that the Dimensity 911 is not only Lenovo's second Hopen OS device, but also the first Hopen OS model in history to open the installation of apps to ordinary users. In fact, it may even be the only Hopen OS device that is actually in production and has a native app installation interface.
Because it is with this model as a platform, Lenovo has also led the first Hopen OS application development competition in the country. And the prizes of this "Dimensity 911 Application Design Award" are all borne by Lenovo, not the nominal owner of Hopen OS, Kaishao Peng.
From this point of view, we can even think that in the earliest stage of the domestic mobile operating system, Lenovo showed more enthusiasm than any of its friends in this ecosystem, and even more than the developers of the domestic operating system themselves. From today's point of view, I have to say that this is somewhat ironic.
Being hurt and choosing to quit isn't a mistake
Of course, if you have paid attention to our archaeological content about Hopen OS before, you may remember that after that, Hopen OS gave up the handheld computer market and transformed into smartphones. Moreover, the development of their smartphone system was not successful, and the third-party software installation function that was originally short-lived on the Lenovo Dimensity 911 was lost on the mobile version, and because of this, the Hopen OS was lackluster in the later stage and the adaptation was poor.
In the article at that time, we didn't mention one thing, that is, Lenovo actually reached the initial stage of the Hopen OS mobile version, and still wanted to support this domestic operating system.
For example, on the official website of the Kaisi Haopeng company behind Hopen OS, you can still find the release news of Lenovo G900 mobile phone, and this is one of the first models of Hopen OS.
But you might as well imagine,If the previous Dimensity 810 on the "variety card" expansion function, and the follow-up Dimensity 911 software installation function, are all made by Lenovo themselves, but to the mobile phone version, they found that the new system still does not have a software expansion function, and many manufacturers will use this system, do you think they will go to the operating system to make a software interface (and may be "borrowed" by other manufacturers in the future), and even spend a lot of energy to support this system?
Yes, Lenovo's Hopen OS product line stopped at the G900, or rather, stopped at the first phone version of Hopen OS. However, from the perspective of "latecomers", such a decision does not seem to be unwise.
With the arrival of the 2008 Olympics, Lenovo once again made a big move
Moreover, Hopen OS is not the last autonomous operating system solution that Lenovo has fully supported on the consumer side. Because just a few years later, they ushered in a bigger and more historic "big move" in terms of independent products.
In 2008, Beijing ushered in the "big test" of the Olympic Games, and at this critical juncture, Lenovo customized a special "handheld computer" for them in order to facilitate the work of the relevant personnel of the Olympic Organizing Committee.
Yes, this is the Lenovo Beacon08 that we have previously archived for you. According to the information we have learned, the Beacon08 actually came from Lenovo's PC R&D department, not the mobile phone department, but this is not the main reason why this obviously able to make phone calls is called a "handheld computer".
The real reason is that the policy at the time did not allow 2G phones to have WiFi capabilities. However, Beacon08 is a product designed for office scenarios, it has a built-in browser and email client, so a high-speed network connection is absolutely necessary.
Therefore, Lenovo "drilled a loophole" and launched and reported this device in the name of "handheld computer". This not only allowed it to successfully obtain access to the network, but also successfully circumvented the restrictions of the only mobile phone sponsor of the Olympic Games (Samsung).
Most importantly, this office equipment, which is specially prepared for the Olympic Games, is equipped with Lenovo's Linux-based operating system. Of course, you can understand that this is a necessary need for information security for major events, but from another point of view, if Android had not risen at that time, this system might have become the core of Lenovo's follow-up products.
Two very different "U8s", but they share the same complex
Of course, these are definitely not our simple guesses. On the one hand, Beacon08 is not an "orphan certificate" of Lenovo's self-developed Linux system, because shortly after it was launched, Lenovo released two devices that use Linux systems one after another.
One of them is the Lenovo U8, which is a handheld computer product prepared by Lenovo for media coverage during the Olympics. This device can be seen in the report on the Olympic flame reaching the summit of Mount Everest on May 8, 2008.
Judging from the U8 real machine we have at hand, it obviously adopts the Beacon08 "simplified scheme", such as canceling the external screen and mobile network communication function, reducing the screen size, and slightly modifying the keyboard layout. In other words, the positioning of this model is significantly lower than that of Beacon08, but the huge Olympic LOGO and the vaguely recognizable license of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology tell the unusual identity of this device.
And that's not all, because we also got another device called the Lenovo IdeaPad U8.
Yes, compared to the "U8", the "ideapad U8" is actually the final production version for consumers. It was built on the Atom MID platform, which Intel pushed at the time, and used a sizable touchscreen with a unique asymmetrical shape, which was surprisingly stable to hold with one hand despite its large body.
But more importantly, this mass-produced Internet terminal, which is also a commemorative equipment for the Olympic Games, is equipped with the Hongqi MIDINUX system jointly developed by Hongqi Linux and Intel at that time. As the world's first Linux operating system specially developed for MID devices, it also represents an important milestone in the practicalization and internationalization of domestic operating systems.
And after we checked the relevant information of the same period, we found that not only Lenovo launched a device running Hongqi MIDINUX at that time, but most of the products of other homes are quite "homogeneous" in terms of appearance design and key arrangement, only Lenovo's iddeapad U8 is a little "maverick", and it is obvious that it took more effort to design.
Even in the Adroid era, Lenovo has experimented
Of course, from the perspective of historical development, Android rose strongly after 2008 and occupied the vast majority of the market share of the mobile operating system ecosystem in a short period of time.
But even in this context, Lenovo has tried to do some "resistance". For example, they have supported China Mobile's "OMS" operating system based on Android's deep customization, becoming the first manufacturer of this probably most successful domestic semi-autonomous mobile ecosystem that year, and launched the first OMS mobile phone in history Lenovo MIRO O1 with an extremely high-end tone.
For another example, Lenovo is also the first brand in the domestic market to deeply change the Android system and launch its own OS. The original Le Phone released in 2010 used the full gesture swipe operation logic that was absolutely ahead of the time at the time, and was equipped with Lenovo's exclusive "Le OS" system, which had a completely different interface logic from Android at that time, and even many built-in software were specially customized.
What's even more interesting is that Lenovo even fitted the former flagship smartphone with an external keyboard module. It is connected through a magnetic interface, and after installation, it can make Le Phone have a full keyboard input experience similar to Beacon08.
And this keyboard base is made of all-metal + leather material, which feels quite solid in the hand, and it will even double the battery capacity for it, as well as additional stereo speakers. Creatively, this is obviously far superior to the Bluetooth keyboards of various mobile phones that followed.
Today's Lenovo is still the leader of the domestic independent ecology
To be honest, if it is only from the perspective of "archaeology", then for the story of Lenovo and the ecology of domestic consumer electronics, it should be almost the same here. After all, many friends have noticed the product and technical details since then.
For example, on some models of Lenovo's Rescuer game phone and the Moto brand, they have actually debuted many times, or even monopolized OmniVision's image sensor solution. This includes, but is not limited to, the OV50A for the first time of the moto X30, the OV64A for the first time of the Legion gaming phone 2 Pro, and the OV60, which is still the industry's highest pixel front camera, and so on.
For example, in the PC field, we have already told the story of Lenovo's self-developed LA series AI chips earlier. Now, the LA family has evolved into its third generation, and is still equipped in some of Lenovo's high-end PC products, as an independent low-power AI controller, giving them functions such as camera intelligent perception and hardware-level performance automatic scheduling.
Unlike many other brands, Lenovo's Xinchuang computer "treats a variety of different domestic chips equally"
Not to mention that in the field of information and innovation, which ordinary consumers may not be familiar with, Lenovo has actually been the supply chain leader of many domestic chips and domestic operating system PCs for many years.
Because of this, judging from a recently released Xinchuang procurement data, Lenovo has undoubtedly once again achieved the vast majority of domestic office PC purchases. And this obviously reminds us that as a leading manufacturer that has been objectively recognized by the professional market, Lenovo's position in the domestic computing ecosystem is obviously not as simple as many friends imagine.
Perhaps, this is not unrelated to Lenovo's efforts in the domestic computing ecology over the years, but from another point of view, it is precisely because Lenovo has "experienced" so much, and they themselves are not a fixed chip or system developer, so in the production of domestic PCs, you can do a lot of "selfless" attitude that other brands can't do, and do not favor a specific domestic processor, nor exclude the use of potential competing solutions. And this is actually quite a rare thing in the current chaotic independent PC industry.
[Individual pictures in this article come from the Internet]