According to the Star Daily on December 30 (Reporter Huang Xinyi), 30 kilometers northwest from the center of Wuhan city lies a large technology industrial park — the Lenovo Wuhan industrial base. This base is not only the largest global R&D and manufacturing base for Lenovo's mobile intelligent terminals, but it has also been a leader in Hubei Province's industry, ranking among the top in the province for nine consecutive years.

"Currently, our daily production capacity exceeds 0.14 million units, which means that a Smart Phone or tablet is produced every 0.6 to 0.7 seconds, making it the largest global R&D and manufacturing base for Lenovo's mobile intelligent terminal business," said Chen Shuli, General Manager of the Lenovo Wuhan industrial base, to the Star Daily.

Driven by the AI large model craze, Lenovo has determined the AI "integrated multi-end" Global Strategy, stating, "In the next year or two, we will gradually focus on the Smart Phone business and aim to launch a flagship model in the AI Smart Phone field in the first half of next year," revealed Huang Zhixin, General Manager of Lenovo China's Consumer Business Group Mobile Division.

▍ Lenovo Wuhan industrial base's export value is nearly 47 billion US dollars.

Entering the Lenovo Wuhan industrial base, reporters from the Star Daily observed that advanced technologies such as AI are applied to enhance production efficiency within the vast rectangular factory. For example, throughout the entire process from placing orders, main board production, pre-assembly, assembly, finished product packaging to delivery, Lenovo has developed a series of intelligent systems. Among them, the intelligent planning system APS considers various constraints and uses mathematical algorithms to achieve medium- to long-term resource demand forecasting, improve human-machine-material utilization, warn of risks, assist in decision-making, and optimize planning scheduling and delivery processes.

Chen Shuli, General Manager of Lenovo Wuhan industrial base, stated that here, a Smart Phone or tablet is produced every 0.6 to 0.7 seconds, with a daily production capacity exceeding 0.14 million units, showcasing extremely high production efficiency.

Currently, 60% of all terminal products under Lenovo come from the Wuhan industrial base. Over the past eleven years of development in the East Lake High Technology Group, it has created an industrial output value of over 440 billion yuan and an export value of nearly 47 billion US dollars, maintaining first place in Hubei Province for nine consecutive years.

In the base workshop, the unmanned intelligent three-dimensional warehouse based on AI algorithms and smart robots realizes semi-finished product storage and order sorting through box robots connecting across floors, high-speed transfer of small lifting robots, and intelligent scheduling and sorting functions.

In addition, the AI Leiyan application, which is an AI visual inspection system based on Lenovo Brain, has the capabilities of AI and machine autonomous learning, achieving closed-loop control and intelligent decision-making through equipment interconnection and feedback.

In front of a detection machine, staff place mobile phone middle frame samples with glue road defects into the device. Subsequently, the machine checks the product against the AI algorithm and detects it as unqualified, displaying detailed information about the defects on the screen, all in less than 5 seconds.

Chen Shuli introduced to the Star Daily reporter that the Lenovo Wuhan Industrial Base is the first electronic manufacturing enterprise in Wuhan with an annual output value exceeding 50 billion yuan, mainly responsible for the research and development and production of smartphones, tablets, and other diversified mobile intelligent terminal devices, with products sold globally to over 160 countries and regions.

▍Smart Phones Return to Strategic Focus Foldable PCs Set to Launch

Entering 2024, more and more mobile phones start "All in AI", with AI smartphones becoming a hot topic discussed throughout the industry. Lenovo has also released the AI "all-in-one multi-terminal" strategy, covering AI PCs, AI smartphones, AI tablets and AIoT terminals.

Huang Zhixin, General Manager of Lenovo's China Consumer Business Group Mobile Phone Division, revealed that the focus will be on mobile business in the next couple of years. In the first half of next year, Lenovo will launch a more powerful AI smartphone.

"AI is a significant opportunity, and these couple of years are also the biggest explosion point for AI. Lenovo's whole company will take AI as the strategic axis and expand in the areas of learning, work, and life. In recent years, Lenovo smartphones have seen a decline in recognition in China. However, within Lenovo's all-in-one multi-terminal strategy, smartphones are the most important part. Therefore, 'Lenovo aims to gradually shift focus to mobile business and return to a mainstream position as quickly as possible.'"

It is reported that Lenovo plans to launch a flagship iconic product in the AI Smart Phone field in the first half of next year. "In addition to flagship products, there will be a full range covering from basic versions to Pro, Pro Plus, and Ultra models in the mid-to-high end bar type phones. Moreover, the products will see two iterations a year, continually optimizing Hardware and Software throughout the year, and the Edge series will have four times more than this year's products, covering even more user needs in various scenarios. To put it simply, next year is the first year of the revival for Lenovo's moto brand, so our products will be more comprehensively prepared."

In addition to AI terminals, reporters from the Star Daily also learned that flexible folding devices are also a strategic direction for Lenovo. Shang Ke, chief researcher at Lenovo Research Institute, revealed that a folding PC will be launched during CES 2025. "The market for folding PCs is expected to see significant growth in 2026 and 2027, and there are still many possibilities."

Additionally, Lenovo is also exploring other innovations in flexible folding devices, such as the sliding roll PC. "New prototypes of flexible folding devices will also be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Spain in two months," Shang Ke stated.