Lenovo heats up the ultrabook competition

Lenovo unveiled a lighter, quicker
ThinkPad notebook computer on Monday to
appeal to customers who like the convenience of
tablets and smartphones.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon will go on sale later this month, the Chinese computer maker said.
Lenovo Group acquired the ThinkPad brand with
IBM Corp.'s personal computer unit in 2005.
Lenovo passed Dell Inc. last year to become the
second-largest PC manufacturer after Hewlett-
Packard Co.
The latest ThinkPad has third-generation wireless
connectivity and other features inspired by tablets
and smartphones, said Dilip Bhatia, vice president
of the ThinkPad business unit. He said that was in
response to demands by customers who want a
tablet's convenience but need a notebook's wider
range of functions.
"They want faster. They want thinner," Bhatia said.
Lenovo shaved the 14-inch (35.5 centimeter)
laptop computer's weight to three pounds (1.3
kilograms) from the 3.7 pounds (1.7 kilograms) of
last year's model, Bhatia. He said it would have up
to eight hours of battery life and the startup time
was reduced by as much as half to under 20
seconds.
The ThinkPad unit launched the first tablet version
ofits computer last year.
Despite tablets' growing popularity, Bhatia said
there will still be strong demand for notebooks to
perform more complex functions in business,
education and government. Forecasts call for
global notebook sales to reach 230 million this
year.
From AP news