Ericsson to supply HSDPA chips for Lenovo notebooks

Laptops from Lenovo will start shipping this year with HSDPA technology built in, which can theoretically support download speeds up to 14.4MBps..

Market projections say that by 2011, an annual 200 million notebooks will ship worldwide. Of those, Ericsson is betting that half will ship with built-in HSDPA. If that's the case, then the Swedish cell phone maker is jumping on board at the right time.

About 160 HSDPA networks have been deployed commercially. Lenovo will be the first customer for the HSDPA module, Ericsson said.

The company supplies communications services and manages networks that serve approximately 185 million subscribers worldwide. Several companies are calling upon it to build out their 3G networks -- including AT&T and T-Mobile -- so this venture with Lenovo makes a good deal of sense.

"Our engineering team is working with Ericsson's engineers to deliver ThinkPads with the fastest and most reliable connectivity available," Lenovo product chief Frances O'Sullivan said. "We firmly believe that this effort will dramatically change the user mobile experience."