Lenovo throws arms and legs around SMBs
Plans to dish up SL series to pump up sales
Lenovo yesterday revealed plans to launch a new Thinkpad laptop line that will come loaded with features and support services pitched towards the small and medium-sized biz market.
The SL series will be priced from $699 to $1,199 in the US. The laptops will carry online backup services – the first of the kind for the Thinkpad line – and Absolute Software’s LoJack technology that helps track down stolen notebooks, the firm said according to several reports.
Lenovo has built additional security into the new SL series including the company’s own ThinkVantage hardware and software that provides security and support tools. There’s also Active Protection System, which protects data stored on a laptop’s hard drive.
The Beijing, China-based firm, which is the world’s fourth biggest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, said it hoped to scoop up biz customers with up to 99 employees which don’t have their own in-house IT support.
It’s hardly surprising to see Lenovo punting laptops to the increasingly lucrative SMB market, particularly in Europe, China and the US as it attempts to fill its piggy bank with more loot.
Just last month the company, which purchased the PC division of IBM in 2005, undershot analyst forecasts on Wall Street, citing sluggish laptop sales in the economically depressed US.
Lenovo, which has yet to dish up hardware specifics about the new range, plans to officially announce the laptops in the next few weeks. ®
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COMMENTS
Lenovo's are better than I expected
I'm another old-time Thinkpad user and have recommend them to clients for years.
First of all, I doubt there's ever been a Thinkpad built outside Asia, at least for the last 10 years. Several years before Lenovo got involved, the top-of-the-range models were at least partly manufactured in Japan, but IBM was building most of them in China or Singapore long before Lenovo took over.
I'm not such a big fan of T60's either, but I think the T61 is decent. Early versions of the Windows software tools after the Lenovo transition could be a bit shaky as well, but a lot of that has been sorted out in recent versions. (ie System Update, Access Connections)
Think's ain't what they used to be!
I agree.
I've had Thinkpads for 10 years or so, mainly bought re-conditioned, and everything after T23's are flimsy. I still have a 10+ year old 380XD running as a firewall.
Granted, bits always fell off eventually, but none have ever let me down by not working onsite until I got a T30 (the first model built in the far east, I believe). T41s and T42s appeared a bit better, but I do not like the T60s at all, especially the widescreen ones, which is why I havn't bought one!
I really don't know what I will get next. Never mind. My current machine (again a T30, because the disk and DVD-Writer could be just swapped over) runs Ubuntu 8.04 quite well enough for the moment, as long as the one remaining working memory socket stays soldered to the MB. Won't be upgrading the Windows partition to Vista, though.
@Mark Dempster
Actually the quality has gone down hill. I love the IBM branded t series thinkpads they were tough and could take a beating. The new Lenovo seem to be cheaply made. They remind me of the old R series stuff except I don't think they will stand up as well.
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