Q&A with Lenovo product engineer Ashton Kutcher on the creation of the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro
Q&A: Ashton Kutcher, Lenovo ‘Product Engineer,’ Doesn't Fear the iPad … Ashton Kutcher plays the role of Lenovo product engineer well. Really well, almost like Michael Kelso well.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Yoga name has been Lenovo's answer to post-PC anxiety since it stretched the convertible branding across its whole lineup in 2013, and the company kept iterating through 2014 with the Yoga Tablet 10 HD+. The new wrinkle this week is who is selling it: Ashton Kutcher, billed as a Lenovo product engineer, fronting the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro and telling the Wall Street Journal he does not fear Apple's iPad.
The timing matters because Lenovo enters this launch from strength — it overtook Hewlett-Packard as the world's largest PC maker earlier in 2014, posted a 23 percent jump in quarterly profit, and is pushing hard into phones against Samsung. A celebrity engineer pitching an Android tablet with a built-in projector and subwoofer is how a PC leader tries to buy credibility in the one device category where Apple still sets the terms.
First-order effects
- Kutcher's 'product engineer' role gives the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro a human face and a direct anti-iPad talking point at launch, substituting personality for the spec-sheet parity that usually dooms Android tablets against Apple.
Second-order effects
- With the $199 Tab S8 anchoring the low end, the projector-equipped Tablet 2 Pro stretches the same brand across budget and premium tiers, pressuring Samsung and other Android makers to differentiate on features rather than price alone.
Third-order effects
- If the celebrity-engineer formula moves units, expect more consumer-hardware brands to install famous names in product roles as a standard playbook for crowded commodity categories — and for buyers to discount the title accordingly.
The trend: Lenovo is converting its PC-market leadership into a multi-device brand push, using celebrity-fronted differentiation to attack Apple where it is weakest: everything that is not an iPad.