Lenovo is best known for its computers and smartphones like dozens of other OEMs. But the company is launching a new service that should differentiate its devices from the competition. With Lenovo Connect, you can connect around the world with a low-priced global roaming plan.
In other words, Lenovo is becoming a mobile virtual network operator specializing in data plans for roaming purposes. You sign up once, and you can travel around the world.
Lenovo Connect’s rollout is going to be slow. First, the service is launching this month in China for people using a LeMeng X3 smartphone or a MIIX 700 tablet. It should work in more than 50 countries around the world.
Later this quarter, in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Lenovo is working on 45 different countries to roll out Lenovo Connect in ThinkPad laptops. At this point, the service will be available in more than 110 countries.
Lenovo has already been working on an MVNO for a while as it already has 11 million customers today. And this is a smart move as nothing differentiates a Windows laptop featuring Intel chips from other laptops. Similarly, you’re going to compare Lenovo’s Android phones with phones from other manufacturers.
Lenovo has a long history of working with corporate clients, and a service like Lenovo Connect makes sense for business clients traveling all around the world. It’s a good way to reduce the roaming bill and build stickiness around Lenovo products.
Now, we’ll have to wait and see the full list of supported countries as well as the price for data plans in each country. Details are still very thin at this point. And yet, I can’t help but think that more companies should work on this kind of universal data roaming plans.