Lenovo, the biggest maker of personal computers, has hired Ashton Kutcher to help design new tablets and also unveiled a device with longer battery life as it seeks to win users from Apple. The moves are all parts of Lenovo’s strategy to diversify from reliance on PCs and sell more tablets as well as smartphones.
“Lenovo Names Ashton Kutcher Its Newest Product Engineer,” the company said in announcing the Kutcher deal.
“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,” Kutcher explained. “Lenovo is all about innovation and strong leadership. Entrepreneurship is part of their DNA, and I couldn’t ask for a better fit.”
Lenovo points out that there’s more to Kutcher than Hollywood. He is a technology investor and is a founder of A-Grade Investments, which has backed ventures such as 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 at 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.”
Kutcher will help develop and market the Yoga line of tablets by providing input on design, specifications, software and usage scenarios, Roman said at a press conference in Los Angeles late Tuesday night that was broadcast over the Internet. Terms of Kutcher’s contract weren’t disclosed, Lenovo spokesman Brion Tingler said in an email.
Media reports have speculated that the deal is worth some $10 million.
Lenovo, which operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville, trails both Apple and Samsung Electronics for tablet shipments in its home market of China and is planning to boost deliveries of the devices to 10 million units globally this year, from 2.2 million last year, Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing said in May.
Kutcher unveiled Lenovo’s new Yoga tablet with 18-hour battery life and 5 megapixel camera running Google’s Android 4.2 system.
According to Apple, iPad offers as much as 10 hours of battery life while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.
Kutcher, who stars on the television show “Two and a Half Men,” has more than 15 million followers of his microblog on Twitter Inc. He played the title role in “Jobs,” a biopic on Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, which was released in August.
Lenovo is among Asian hardware makers looking to Hollywood for a boost. HTC Corp. in August began running ads with Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes in hit movies. Downey’s two-year global marketing deal was worth about $12 million, two people with knowledge of the plans said in June.
Lenovo ranked only third in the China tablet market during the second quarter, with 8 percent share, trailing Apple’s 28 percent and Samsung’s 11 percent, market researcher International Data Corp. said in August.
In the past six months, Lenovo globally sold more tablets and smartphones than PCs, Roman said.
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