Advanced Technology News
- Lenovo challenges Microsoft with 3C convergence technology
Date: 10-Jan-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Strolling in the park, Xiao Wang takes out her mobile phone, uses it to open MSN messenger on her home computer and chats with a foreign friend. At home, her brother is playing a computer game, eyes glued to the TV screen and fingers pressing on a game console. Their mother, sitting on the couch, is watching on-line videos with a projector and their father is typing out a greeting email -- all of these actions and being delivered by one computer simultaneously.
To make that come true, China's PC giant Lenovo last Friday launched its real-time multimedia collaboration technology (RMCT), a key technology for integrating computer, communication and consumer electronic products (3C) resources in digital home entertainment.
The new technology enables users to use one computer at several different terminals -- television, game player, mobile phone and projector -- at the same time without interfering with each other, said Lenovo chief technology officer He Zhiqiang at a press conference last Friday.
'If we cooperate with television manufacturers to produce a 'box' to link computers to TV sets, you can be sure of one thing -it will be much cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox,' said He.
A video game player developed by Microsoft, Xbox 360 allows users to play games and also download music, movies and TV programs and display computer files on the television screen. It sells for more than 1,000 yuan (125 U.S. dollars).
'The most difficult challenge was to achieve real-time collaboration for 3D games, but we managed it. With RMCT, there will be no need to buy expensive game players like Xbox,' said Yan Yiqiang, a senior researcher with the Lenovo Research Institute.
However, He denied that Lenovo's latest strategy was aimed at any specific company, saying many producers are targeting the market.
The global digital home entertainment market reached 166 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 and will rise 20 percent annually on average to 411 billion U.S. dollars by 2010, according to a report by BCC, a U.S.-based market researcher.
Lenovo has spent five years and more than 10 million yuan on the development of RMCT and applied for 45 patents for the technology at home and abroad, said He.
He predicted that products with RMCT functions will be available in the market in twelve or 18 months.
It is not clear whether RMCT will be used for the 2008 Olympic Games, for which Lenovo is a sponsor, said He.
Chinese enterprises see 3C convergence as a huge potential market. China had 132 million people on line at the end of 2006, second only to the United States, more than 455 million mobile users and one of the world's largest home appliance markets.
A 3C convergence standard developed by Chinese enterprises was approved by the government as a national standard in 2005.
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