According to a report from Technology Business Research (TBR), Lenovo’s ThinkPad brand has the most respect and brand awareness among end-users. Customers consider such systems as the most reliable and the company’s checks confirm that end-users have maximum satisfaction with their IBM ThinkPad-branded machines.

“Lenovo has clearly been the most consistent at meeting the very high requirements of its customers,” said Jon Lindy, president at TBR. “We think Lenovo should continue to push innovations to the forefront in order to further enhance its reputation in the industry.”

In Q4 2006, Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks received higher awareness than the company’s closest competition as the brand most often identified as standing apart from the crowd. The report noted that the perception of the ThinkPad value proposition has increased steadily for the past year helping to move Lenovo to a leadership position.

For the eighth consecutive quarter, Lenovo dominated the area of hardware reliability, confirming the long-standing ThinkPad reputation for durability and exceptional product design. Noting improvement in specific categories from the previous quarter, TBR recognized Lenovo for making substantial progress within the areas of notebook value, ease of doing business, repair time, and overall satisfaction.

TBR observed that Lenovo was the only PC company in the report to maintain its competitive strength position for hardware reliability for an extended period of time. The progress of Lenovo in the past five reporting periods has been an overall advance in position.

The TBR report singled out Lenovo’s longstanding reputation for design quality and high reliability. Lenovo retained its product design competitive strength, extending its leadership status to the past three reporting periods. Examples of ThinkPad’s innovative product designs include IBM-developed Roll Cage and Active Protection System shock absorbing technologies that protect the structure and internal component of the notebook.

Lenovo’s Roll Cage, a magnesium alloy frame that absorbs shock by surrounding the critical interior parts, is an inner armor chassis that reduces the amount of stress on internal components when the notebook is dropped. The internal components, including the hard disk drive, are mounted in a one-piece magnesium cage that forms a more protective shell than traditional casings without affecting usability. Combined with Lenovo’s Active Protection System (which continuously monitors the ThinkPad and temporarily stops the hard drive to help prevent some hard drive crashes when a fall or similar event is detected), the ThinkPad roll cage provides a strong solution to defend against costly damage. In addition, the ThinkPad HDD Shock Absorber provides impact protection from crashes that could occur when setting the notebook on a hard surface while in use, providing 30% more protection than the system case alone.

“Our performance ranking in TBR’s quarterly report is strong evidence of our focus on delivering the best product and service to our customers,” said Christopher Askew, senior vice president, Customer Service, Lenovo. “Our team works tirelessly to bring customers the best designed, most carefully thought-out, and best engineered personal computers in the world.”