Lenovo pitches Thinkpad Helix to SMBs

Thinkpad Helix
Pitching on the BYOD trend

Lenovo is targeting small and midsized businesses (SMBs) as a key market for its new Thinkpad Helix, executives of the company said at a press briefing in London.

The convertible ultrabook, which runs on Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro and can be configures as a tablet or for presentation mode, is due to become available in the UK in April.

The company has an eye on the Thinkpad Helix picking up on the trend for "bring your own device" in the workplace.

Andrew Barrow, Enterprise Product Leader EMEA for Lenovo, told TRPro: "SMBs are looking for a more consumer look and feel, and the design of the product has this influence."

He said the Thinkpad Helix would work as a business product partly because users would find it attractive for personal use, but also because there are some functions, such as a sales demonstration, which are easy to handle with a touchscreen.

They have posed challenges to IT managers needing to enforce security policies, but the Thinkpad Helix can be controlled as any Windows 8 device with features such as the ability to disable software downloads or USB ports and lockdown.

Barrow said that small firms are likely to want just a handful of business software packages, all of which are compatible with Windows 8.