As the 3D printing market expands both from a consumer as well as a manufacturer’s standpoint, we are sure to see some of the larger tech companies get involved in one way on another. In fact this is already beginning to occur as large corporations such as Microsoft, HP, and Autodesk have already stepped foot into the rapidly expanding market.
This last week another large multinational corporation, Lenovo, revealed their plans to enter the space via their new online brand Shenqi. Lenovo, based in China, has made a name for themselves within the smartphone, laptop, tablet, and desktop PC markets, but with companies like Apple dominating in many of those areas, Lenovo is now looking towards other up and coming markets for growth.
On Thursday, May 28, the first ever Lenovo Tech World Conference took place in Beijing, China. On hand was Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Lenovo, in addition to CEOs from numerous other large corporations such as Intel, Microsoft and Baidu. The conference served as a platform for Lenovo to show off new products as well as demonstrate several conceptual products that they have been working on, which they believe will change the way people interact with technology on a daily basis.
“Lenovo Tech World was a celebration of innovation with some of the world’s great tech leaders, our partners and suppliers, and most important of all, our fans and customers,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO, Lenovo. “Lenovo has a unique position in our industry because we can deliver the devices, smart connectivity and infrastructure required to create a great user experience and satisfy real user needs. Even more, we talk to our fans everyday about how we can innovate together. They are our partners in defining the future of technology. We will deliver innovation like we showed here today to solve problems and address customer pain points. We will bring together hardware software and services to transform the user experience. This is our vision, and we showed some glimpses of the next wave of Lenovo innovation here today.”
Among some of the concept products which were demonstrated were smart shoes which could count the calories a person burns and determine their mood, new smart watches, smart phones with integrated projectors, and most interesting to us at least, 3D printers capable of printing food.
On display at the conference were 3D printers, which Lenovo stressed were currently only concepts, that could print objects out of chocolate. Over the last year we’ve seen a trickle of new machines capable of printing foods such as chocolate, nutella, and other materials with a paste-like consistency to them, but if a multi-billion dollar corporation like Lenovo were to enter this space we may soon begin to see a flurry of additional activity within the food printing industry.
Lenovo did not state when these printers would be available, but seems keen on entering new verticals such as 3D printing which they feel could take off over the next several years. The 3D printing of food certainly seems like a promising area for the company to at least begin taking those initial steps to enter. Whether these products will be a hit or not any time soon is still up in the air, but one thing is for certain, Lenovo is a leader and not a follower like many Chinese companies have been accused of being.
Let’s hear your thoughts on Lenovo’s possibly entrance into the 3D food printing market. Discuss in the Lenovo Chocolate Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.
