Lenovo’s Wide-Screen ThinkPad Notebook Not in Demand – Chief Executive

by Anton Shilov
04/17/2006 | 10:47 AM

In an attempt to address broader audiences with IBM ThinkPad computers, Lenovo introduced last year two models that feature wide-screens and broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to IBM’s proven technologies for laptops. However, chief executive of the company said in a recent interview that the demand for such models was not very high, even though some customers liked the concept.

Last summer Lenovo introduced two new ThinkPad models: Z60t and Z60m laptops with 14” and 15.4” wide-screen displays with improved brightness necessary to watch 16:9 movies in full-screen mode, built-in stereo speakers as well as multimedia keys. ThinkPad Z-series laptops were built on Intel Pentium M processors with 533MHz processor system bus as well as ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chipset with built-in Radeon 9200-class graphics core. The laptops featured such well-known technologies from IBM as ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery, Active Protection System, Productivity Center and others, but there were two main distinguishes compared to the rest of ThinkPad lineup: titanium cover on select models and multimedia functionality.

Bill Amelio, chief executive of Lenovo, told the Financial Times that corporate IT managers, who form the core of the ThinkPad customer base, had not reacted well to changes to the classic square black design, which has remained the same since 1992.

“We’ve had a lot of feedback. The CIOs [chief information officers] that we deal with like to have this system the way it is, and by putting different colours or models in can create some angst,” Mr. Amelio is reported to have said.

Bill Amelio had reportedly indicated that Lenovo’s efforts to modernize the look and feel of the IBM ThinkPad brand of notebooks had not been well received by customers, and were likely to be abandoned.

“If we are going to do something with the ThinkPad in the consumer space, it may be that we bring it under the Lenovo brand,” Mr. Amelio said.

Lenovo has traditionally sold most of their PCs through resellers, while IBM has been keen on addressing corporate customers and has not penetrate the retail market really aggressively. However, after recent intention to sell ThinkPad and ThinkCentre via Best Buy for Business retail outlets Lenovo may consider to adopt direct-sales model.

“Whatever customers want we will be there to provide it. If the customer wants us to go through a partner we will go through a partner, if the customer wants us to be direct we will be direct,” said Bill Amelio.

Lenovo sells a small number of computers directly to customers through local websites, including those in the US, Canada, Australia and India. However, this model is not used everywhere, the news-paper reported.