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Lenovo Japan president weighs in on how weird concepts make it to market

Chris Velazco
·Senior Editor, Mobile
·1 min read

We've previously established that the NEC Lavie Mini -- that 8-inch laptop that doubles as a gaming machine -- is a charmingly weird concept that stands a solid shot making it production. To learn more about the Mini, and to get a broader sense of the factors and decision making that goes into taking a concept from prototype to final product, Lenovo Japan president and NEC PC chief David Bennett joined us for a surprisingly frank conversation on our virtual CES stage.

The full conversation is worth a watch, but in the interest of transparency, I have to spoil a bit of the suspense. In a subsequent exchange, Bennett confirmed to me that -- based on the response the Lavie Mini has received -- development inside Lenovo/NEC has accelerated to the point where it looks like the machine actually will make it to market. That's not to say it'll ever make it outside of its native Japan, but that's still a big win for anyone who spent CES pulling for the little laptop that could.

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