LOS ANGELES – October 29, 2013: Multimode computing leader Lenovo(HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced a new partnership with Ashton Kutcher at the livestream launch event of the new Yoga Tablet, held at the Youtube Space LA. In his new role as a Lenovo product engineer, Kutcher will work with the company’s engineering teams around the world to develop and market the Yoga line of tablets by providing input and decision-making into design, specifications, software and usage scenarios.
“This partnership with Lenovo brings together my love of technology and design that makes your life better. I can’t wait to dig in and help Lenovo develop future mobile computing products, starting with the Yoga Tablet,” said Ashton Kutcher. “Lenovo is all about innovation and strong leadership. Entrepreneurship is part of their DNA, and I couldn’t ask for a better fit.”
Kutcher currently stars in the CBS comedy, Two and a Half Men, which airs worldwide. He has also gained significant recognition for his technology investments over the past several years and is a co-founder of A-Grade Investments, which has provided venture capital and collaboration for multiple tech companies including Airbnb, Fab, Foursquare, Spotify, Path and Uber.
“Ashton Kutcher’s authentic, creative appetite for technology and keen consumer insight combined with our innovation engine make this a very natural and powerful partnership,” said David Roman, chief marketing officer, Lenovo. “This partnership goes beyond traditional bounds by deeply integrating him into our organization as a product engineer as we look at developing the next wave of products. As we continue to push into new PC Plus product areas and lead in multimode computing, Ashton will help us break new ground by challenging assumptions, bringing new perspective and contributing his technical expertise to Yoga Tablet and other devices.”
The new multimode Yoga Tablet gives people a better way to get the most out of their tablet experience with up to 18 hours of battery life1 and with its three unique modes: hold, tilt and stand. Recognizing that one size doesn’t fit all, Lenovo created the three modes to solve the common challenges that tablet users face. The Yoga Tablet’s cylindrical handle breaks the mold on “sea of sameness” tablet design, allowing users to more easily hold the tablet to read and browse the Internet, deploy the stand to sit it upright on a surface to watch movies and tilt the tablet down on a surface for a better viewing angle for touchscreen typing and reading.
Financial terms of the multi-year partnership are not being disclosed.
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About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$34 billion personal technology company – the largest PC maker worldwide and an emerging PC Plus leader – serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the Company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo, a global Fortune 500 company, has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.
About Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher is an actor, entrepreneur, tech investor, producer and philanthropist. Kutcher can currently be seen weekly on the CBS comedy, Two and a Half Men. In 2011, Kutcher co-created a venture fund, A-Grade Investments, with Ron Burkle and Guy Oseary. To date, A-Grade has invested in multiple tech companies including Airbnb, Flipboard, Foursquare, Path, Quora, Shazam, SoundCloud, Spotify, The Fancy, and Uber. As a philanthropist, Kutcher co-created Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children (www.wearethorn.org).Thorn invests in, builds and deploys the latest technology as part of the ongoing fight to end child sexual exploitation. In 2010, Kutcher was named one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People. In that same year, his company, Katalyst, was named one of the year’s Top 50 Most Inspiring Innovators by Ad Age and one of Fast Company Magazine’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies. In 2011, Vanity Fair named Kutcher to their 2011 New Establishment List, which identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies and entrepreneurs.
1Actual battery life may vary based on many factors including screen brightness, active applications, features, power management settings, battery age and conditioning, and other customer preferences. Testing consisted of full battery discharge while performing each of the following tasks: two hours of video playback plus two hours of mp3 audio playback in Stand-by Mode plus two hours of Internet browsing using Wi-Fi in Tilt Mode plus twelve hours of reading in Hold Mode.
