Lenovo Gains Ashton Kutcher as Design Engineer

Apparently the old adage that if you keep your eyes open you’ll see something new every day applies to IT as well as baseball, as PC leader Lenovo offered up a doozie Oct. 29, signing on celebrity actor Ashton Kutcher as a pitchman—that would be easily understood—and as a product engineer to offer guidance on design and software for the vendor’s tablets.

There’s more than a little irony here—Kutcher recently played Steve Jobs in the recent biopic on the late Apple (AAPL) founder. Kutcher—who isn’t a stranger to IT with an investment track record that includes Foursquare, Spotify and Uber—said he will have a dual role that includes leveraging his fame to promote Lenovo’s products and offer a fresh perspective on its tablets and other mobile devices.

“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,” said David Roman, Lenovo chief marketing officer. “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.”

First up for Kutcher was to showcase Lenovo’s new Yoga tablet, a nifty device that comes in 10-inch and 8-inch models, both of which can be configured to work either in the user’s hand, lay flat on a table or sit upright. Each model runs Android 4.2 on MT8125 for WiFi models and MT8389 Quad Core processors for 3G models with 16GB or 32GB capacity.

The 10-inch Yoga tablet weighs 1.35 pounds, while the smaller edition clocks in at .88 pound. Each features 1280×800 displays, a 5MP rear camera and a front-facing camera, a micro SD expansion slot for up to 64GB of storage, WiFi and optional 3G. An optional Bluetooth keyboard is available for the 10-inch model that also serves as a cover.

Major retailers such as Amazon (AMZN), Best Buy (BBY) and others began selling the Yoga tablets Oct. 30. The larger unit is priced at $299 while the smaller one’s price is set at $249. The optional Bluetooth keyboard cover costs $69. Lenovo also will be selling the Yoga tablets and accessories at its website.

“I can’t wait to dig in and help Lenovo develop future mobile computing products, starting with the Yoga Tablet,” said Kutcher. “Lenovo is all about innovation and strong leadership. Entrepreneurship is part of their DNA, and I couldn’t ask for a better fit.”

While Kutcher’s position as an actor, and his status as a Hollywood hearthrob and gossip rag target make it easy to dismiss him as a serious contributor to Lenovo’s technology and marketing aside from that of a frontman, it must be noted that he was a biomechanical engineering student at the University of Iowa before modeling took him away, he is active in social and political causes and has more than dabbled in technology, co-founding Katalyst, a social media studio and A-Grade Investments. He insists that he will serve as an actual product engineer and not just a pretty face. If so, then Lenovo may have broken a mold here.