Lenovo Smart Glasses Prototype Revealed

In an attempt to attract developers and hardware manufacturers to their new program, Lenovo took the veil off their smart glasses prototype.

When it comes to appearance, the Lenovo smart glasses imitate the Glass design, with the only difference that the device’s accumulator is not attached to the device itself, but it’s attached to the user’s neck. Other information will be presented in October this year.

Other news say that Lenovo is looking through the market for partners that can produce more than PC and smartphone technology. Their plan is to team up with or fund tech companies that will help them manufacture all kind of products that would help grow their China home market, and that includes products like air purifiers and wireless routers.

For this purpose, Lenovo created a platform, called NBD. In order to address a wider market that includes interconnected devices, the company would also need some market studies before creating something. Nowadays it is completely irrational to design a product, launch it on the market and hope people will buy it.

The interconnected devices we were telling you about create the Internet of Things. And as Chen Xudong, Lenovo’s senior vice president said, there is a big diversity of devices that can be developed for the Internet of Things, and it is normal for one company to look for partnerships, because one only cannot be specialized in every technology that appears.

Lenovo’s platform means ‘new bench’ in Chinese and it was created to provide logistical support and hardware research, and funding to the enrolled partners. Even though NBD is designed for the Chinese area, in the near future Lenovo might take a step towards international distribution.

Chen also said that they’re hoping to use the platform and the company’s advantages to close deals with technology innovators. NBD could also be a way for them to sell their products and create supply chains on the market.

As for Lenovo’s smart glasses project, apparently the company has announced a partnership with Vuzix, an US smart glasses manufacturer and will be bringing their product in China. Vuzix’s smart glasses, the M100 works on Android 4.0.4, it’s powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and it is planned to be sold starting with August or September. The M100 was created for business owners and will be sold at the price of $1298 (8,000 yuan).

The German company Luftmed has also partnered with the NBD platform in order to sell a smartphone controlled air purifier in China. Their new Air X330 is supposed to offer better air cleaning services as well as more accurate statistics than the products already existent on the market.

Another device that took the headlights this Thursday in Lenovo’s presentation was a smartphone controlled wireless router that was also developed with the help of Chinese companies.

Lenovo uses the Chinese market as a marketing test for their new product categories. While expanding over the PC technology, new product categories are being tested in China before being sold internationally. This approach has also been used for products such as TVs, tablets and smartphones.

And there are many Chinese companies that want to expand their influence through well-placed partnership programs. If you remember, back in April, Baidu announced a new project meant to attract hardware developers, and develop smart gadgets based on Baidu’s technology.