Lenovo [3] is spending the better part of a billion dollars [4] (even more impressive in local currency: five billion yuan) to improve its chances in the mobile products game. Thousands of new employees will populate a new production facility in Wuhan and produce smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices--for both its native Chinese market and overseas. The new factory will open in October 2013, and Lenovo estimates total revenues from this facility alone will reach 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) by 2014 and reach 50 billion yuan in ten years. Lenovo (the "Apple of China [5]") recently revealed its first Intel-powered smartphone, and is best known for producing solid, if very tradtional laptops based on the boxy ThinkPad design for enterprise customers, which it purchased from IBM [6]. The investment is yet another sign that the future market for laptops [7] is dim.

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