中国平板电脑寻找新的竞争力

For many Chinese consumers, the major purpose of a tablet computer is for entertainment. Some say that they are not very user-friendly for work purposes. Facing fierce competition, some Chinese brands have found unique ways to grab more consumers.

Xiao Yu has just met his insurance manager to renew a contract. To his surprise, the manager processes the whole deal on a tablet computer, LePad produced by Lenovo. Xiao says using a touch pad like this is quite innovative.

"The electronic way of processing a deal is very convenient and transparent. I received a text message on my mobile phone telling me how much money I've paid. It also saved time."

As the largest domestic brand, Lenovo has signed contracts with several insurance companies to equip their insurance brokers with LePad and gave it a new name: The Mobile Deal Platform. The prices range from three to four thousand yuan each. China Pacific Insurance President Xu Jinghui says they are cooperating with Lenovo to enhance their working efficiency.

"We estimate that half of our business will be covered by the platform system, and 30 percent of our brokers will process deals using LePad."

Lenovo Manager Wang Lei says Chinese brands need to compete with foreign brands by seeking new opportunities in a Chinese way.

"We've noticed that consumer goods companies such as P&G and Coca Cola have lots of salespeople. Insurance companies have a great number of brokers. They need to visit customers all the time. They need to carry a user friendly mobile platform for them to process deals. I think this is a blue ocean opportunity."

Like Lenovo, some other Chinese brands have found their own way of competing for a larger market share by providing personalized services for different customers. This way, they can not only sell more of their tablets, but also promote their work-related applications.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.