SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
You're a long-time fan of Thinkpad laptops (pioneered by IBM, now sold by Lenovo), then this BusinessWeek cover story should be of interest.
Titled "Building the Perfect laptop", it tells the story of how Lenovo was working on building an ultra laptop that would rival Apple's MacBook Air for almost two years now. We're talking here about the upcoming Thinkpad X300, which I posted about a few weeks ago.
More than the X300, the story is really about what how the Thinkpad brand has managed to survive within the Lenovo culture, and has been given more independence and flexibility than what might have otherwise been expected. Some context to start with:
"The original design concept, created by consultant Richard Sapper, was that ThinkPads would be simple, elegant, matte-black machines with precise, 90-degree corners. Introduced in 1992, the ThinkPad went on to become the longest-lasting design franchise in computing history. By 2007, on its 15th anniversary, more than 30 million had been sold.
After Lenovo bought IBM's PC company and Chairman Yang signaled that he wanted innovative design and engineering, Hill took that as a personal challenge to design the thinnest, lightest, and most elegant ThinkPad ever."
It's a powerful story, illustrating risks taken by leaders within Thinkpad/Lenovo at the design, technology and business levels.
Definitely worth reading even if you're not in the market for an ultra-laptop.
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