Do you remember Google’s 3D motion tracking technology that could enable smartphones and tablet computers to sense the surroundings?
In case you can’t recall it and don’t want to check the above link then here is something about Project Tango to jog your memory:
Project Tango & The Difference Between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Project Tango is a combination of advanced 3D tracking technology and depth sensors, enabling the mobile devices to know where it is (based on previously entered data), and navigating through it. This technology holds the potential to unlock the power of augmented reality on smartphones and tablet computers.
Augmented reality is about interacting with real-world objects achieved by overlaying text and graphics on real-life images. On the other hand, virtual reality is related to simulating real-world scenes on a computer display.
We all were pretty excited to see Project Tango in action and the Chinese smartphone and computer giant- Lenovo, has just made an announcement about the world’s first Project Tango smartphone.
Lenovo would be launching its first smartphone based on Project Tango supporting ‘Augmented Reality’ by July this year.
Lenovo announced this smartphone back at CES 2016 in Las Vegas In January but didn’t reveal anything about its launch date.
Yang Yuanqing, CEO at Lenovo, announced in MWC 2016 that the company would be launching a smartphone based on Google’s Project Tango technology in July 2016, but declined to reveal any other information related to the much anticipated phone.
Smartphones based on Project Tango would help Lenovo gain market share in mature markets like North America which shrunk by 0.4% last year.
“If you want to access the mature markets you need two things: innovative products and a premium brand. So far we haven’t done very well on both things. But with a couple of years of preparation, I think now we are ready to attack that market this year” said Yuanqing.
It is good to know that Lenovo acknowledges that it didn’t have a very good brand image in U.S., but thanks to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $2.91 billion from Google, it now enjoys a much better brand image.
Lenovo is now the 4th largest smartphone maker in the world with the top 3 players being Huawei, Apple, and Samsung Electronics.
According to IDC, the Western markets contribute to a very small amount of Lenovo smartphone sales. If we exclude Motorola, then the Western markets contributed to just 0.3% of Lenovo’s total smartphone sales in 2015. As far as the effect of brand image goes, 35% of Motorola phones were sold in Western Europe and the United States.
“We want to break into the mature markets this year. You definitely can expect that,” said Yuanqing, CEO at Lenovo.
Now that Lenovo has a better brand image and is going to launch an innovative smartphone in the Western countries it can hope to witness a significant increase in its market share by the end of this year.
