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Jan. 31 (NBD) -- China's multinational technology company Lenovo opened its first new retail store named Lenovo Smart Life in Beijing on last Sunday, which signaled the company's foray into the new retail market driven by the technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (LoT). 

The new move comes after Lenovo' announcement of the establishment of its new retail business subsidiary Tianxi Legend Technology Co., Ltd. (Tianxi Lengend) in 2018 Consumer Electronics Show held in early this month.

Liu Jun, Executive Vice President of the company and President of the China geography, noted that unicorn companies will definitely emerge in the new retail field and Tianxi Legend could become such an enterprise if the new company operates well. 

Tianxi's new retail shops to reach 1000 units in 2020 

According to Zhou Ming, CEO of Tianxi Legend, Lenovo plans to open 150 new retail stores in 2018, and the second and the third store will be located in Chengdu and Shenzhen. As of 2020, the number of stores is expected to reach 1000, incorporating franchises and 50 outlets.

Named as Smart Life, Lenovo's new shops will provide all products in its smart eco, including those of Lenovo's own brands and incubating brands as well as smart choosing ones, which cover smart home, smart wearables and traveling, all scene entertainment and other fields.

Lenovo doesn't expect the scene related to plug boards or portable chargers, but to offer the scene in which high-end users can experience AI, noted Zhou.

He also revealed that the technology company has changed its retail strategy for many times in the past 30 years, and in 2017, Lenovo's retail structure is still being upgraded. More than 140 IT retail 4S service shops have been set up in 60 cities in China.

It is noted that Lenovo lost its leadership in the global PC market last year and saw no improvement in the smartphone sales. In 2017, the shipment of HP surpassed Lenovo, making HP a dominator in the global PC market, and Lenovo, on the other hand, has witnessed the decline of PC shipment for four successive quarters, according to the data released by the market data provider IDC and the research firm Gartner.

Despite frequent adjustment of structure, the technology company is still not out of woods. Therefore, for Lenovo which attempted transformation in recent years, adopting the "All in AI strategy" as well as entering new retail sector has become the must-have option for the company.

Lenovo's foray into smart eco field

Entering new retail field means not only transformation of channels, but also participating in the future competition of the smart eco, Yan Yuelong, an analyst of the internet industry, told NBD. In the era of LoT, all the hardware will be interconnected by the internet in the future and all companies need the eco because they couldn't produce all hardware by themselves.

While technology giants including Huawei and Lenovo are all forming the smart eco, Lenovo has no choice but to transform itself, Yan said.

Though Liu Jun came back to Lenovo in May last year and carried out significant reform, the company is still facing difficulty in transformation because of its traditional mindset, said Yan. But the establishment of the new enterprise can be regarded as Lenovo's second entrepreneurship, which is an innovative move for the company.

Selling the hardware products of Lenovo's eco is the best way to empower its eco partners, noted Yan.

In the new retail area, Lenovo will incubate more cross-industry and cross-field products through its eco and cooperation with others. Tianxi Legend has stronger ability to empower partners and is more open compared with other new retail firms and enterprises irrelevant to Lenovo can also join Lenovo's new retail system, Yan commented.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn