News is swirling around the intarweb that Lenovo has chosen to ditch plans to base its innovative IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook and Skylight smartbook on a custom Linux OS. Instead, they are planning to launch the machines at a later date with Google’s Android operating system under the hood.

Lenovo’s wording below leaves a lot to the unknown, but it kinda sounds like they may skip the Skylight and IdeaPad U1 altogether. While the general design and chassis would likely live on in a future product, the guts would be decidedly obsolete by the time they could transition everything to Android.

After careful consideration of market conditions and user feedback, Lenovo has decided to focus its resources on building a family of next-generation mobile internet devices based upon open technologies such as (but not limited to) the Android kernel, similar to the Lenovo smartphone, which is available for sale in China now.

As a result of Lenovo’s strategic shift towards open standards such as an Android kernel based environment, the Company has shelved its plans to release the initial version of the Skylight smartbook that featured a proprietary Linux-based OS.

Lenovo remains committed to working with our strategic partners to deliver innovative products in the growing mobile internet space, including the aforementioned smartphones and smartbooks, as well as exploring innovative new concepts that continue to “push-the-envelope” like the U1 hybrid PC.

Source: [LaptopMag]