So the Lenovo phone was announced at CES…much to my confusion. Maybe it’s the fact that I can sometimes be just on the wrong side of “too online”, or that the phone market is now a mature one and there’s just a few brands carrying the flag for “fun, strange phones”, but I thought we’d all agree that the Lenovo phone has been a thing for ages. It’s called Motorola.
Okay, I’ll give it its fair dues, the full name of the newest member of the Think- family of devices is “Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola”. Useful for those who cannot immediately recognize the Motorola Android skin on the publicity photos. Or read the reviews and note the surprising amount of similarities between it and the Motorola X40. And to be fair, Lenovorola has added a brace of integration feature for customers to better enjoy the experience of using their ThinkPad and ThinkPhone. Rather, so that when reps attempt to upsell them to a company already buying hundreds of ThinkPads, they have something to point to. And to be fair, instant hotspots, unified notifications and the Advanced webcam feature are going to be quite welcome for road warriors if they are as seamless as the marketing materials would have us believe.
And if the company does make the decision to get all of those phones, the poor guys on the IT department will not have to deal with much more than they already do when middle management smells new phones in the building. Zero-Touch enrollment should make the entire thing relatively seamless. And that’s atop the premium materials and the lovely design and the lovely (and red-accented) programmable button. There’s only one thing that could spoil this.
I would like for someone to make an actual study into this, but as far as I can tell, people will always pick the iPhone when it isn’t their money. The only exception is when they don’t wan to learn an entirely new OS, in as much as that is a barrier these days, or if they have some really strong opinions about iPhone/Android. That’s not most people however. Most people go to the most expensive/status-increasing line item their manager will approve. And that one is usually some sort of Apple-branded item. And the question then becomes: Will the ThinkPhone be able to break that barrier?
No. But not because it’s terrible. Rather, because trying to break Apple’s stronghold on the public consciousness as a premium item is an uphill battle. Especially with their first phone right out of the gate. Especially especially with Lenovo’s image, which is very much “computer that I was given to do work in” unless you are one of the select few people whom has really strong opinions on laptop keyboard and argue that laptops achieved perfection with the X220/T420.
For most people, it’s designed to be the work phone. The device given by the company because you don’t want the company phone number on your personal device and like the ability to toss it on a drawer for a week when you’re on holiday. But if that’s its destiny, it’s at least the best phone specifically designed to fulfill that destiny.
