The Secret for ThinkPad’s Success

[Yukikaze]

Is IBM TP successful because it was for businessmen and IBM was a successful, profitable, long-living business with Watson and Think as key terms? Yes.
Do all would-be business people like TP? Mostly.
Noah Glass of Twitter did have the entire Twitter ‘on his IBM laptop’ according to Nick Bilton in Hatching Twitter.
And the other one I remember is how close to the end, they used TP Yoga etc for Hawking. So that’s it. Plenty of Think Stories exist, but few of them are Truly famous people.
Now, what is the secret for a company's success where others have failed?
Focus. In the end most companies did not create a unified set of ‘images’ or have a high market share in corporations/banks where the notebooks were used. Also, the IT people must have favored IBM. The image TP gave – it just exudes business. Let’s Note is a more metallic equivalent of TPs and had I been in Japan, I would definitely have bought theirs. But, as it happens, only TPs were available in AU. What did VAIO do? They had VAIOs in James Bond films, even Zuckerberg is seen typing on one (the logo is below the screen not on the front panel) and a whole table of them in the film 2012 or in Hotel Transylvania 2. Unfortunately that’s not enough. Sony CSL’s Mario Tokoro was using one. People were SO excited over model TZ yet they needed repairs and mine ended up failing with its power regulator chip, despite having been used for only 60+ hours according to CrystalDIskMark. In the corporate customer’s mind a prejudice has to be implanted. They have to think that, oh, IBM Yamato Labs people leave their lights on all night working on the PC design and testing. Where are the HP, the Dell designers…where are the Surface designers? There are a ton of minor factors throughout the 25 years that ended up pushing Lenovo’s sales up.
For myself, rarity plays a major role in my purchases. My PCs have to be flauntable. It was good that VAIOs stopped selling. Mine would be rarer. The LED power on buttons, quad-SSDs, incredible VA panels, DSD audio chips, X505/PCG505 inspired designs; nice software…oh yes, TPs focused solely on TVantage apps rather than stuff like SSMS or Click to DVD etc. Same with Let’s Note – always magnesium, LAVIE – legendary Z model with Mg-Li alloy, FMV – used to have high share and also used Mg-Li alloy later before being bought by Lenovo, dynabook – the first laptops ever/Toshiba; they’re flauntable. Maybe not so nice in reality, but in imagination + their nice advertising, those PCs far outrun the Dells, HPs, Surfaces, Macbooks, and whatever else. What advertising? Well, Hi-Res audio chips, 4K panels, Yamaha speakers or Onkyo instead of Harman kardon (dynabooks), yeah yeah, only later do we realize, what about the CPU? The qualities that notebook check always checks are the ones that Yamato Labs placed first. Essentially all that matters is the heart – power, brain – CPU, RAM, Storage, fans and hands – keyboard,,, Sound, Screens, Design, Camera, GPU, those were always neglected. And those would become the topics that notebook check would repeat for over ten years. From a decade ago they were complaining about the speakers! (of course speakers can never be good enough) and the screen having extreme poor quality. After writing this, I anticipate I will become a Let’s Note model LV user. They create their own IPS panels, use 1080p cameras, have really bad mono speakers but overall feels completely different from TPs. Their AC adaptors don’t have earthing, so one may wish to tape wire to the Mg body to an inlet or sth. Earthing is meant to reduce your exposure to certain electric fields.
Rarity relates to availability and pricing. If everyone uses iPhones then its brand value lowers slightly overall - perhaps explained by our desire to show off. But nobody else cares if you have a VAIO Phone Biz or A model. You care. I care that I use a Panasonic Eluga smartphone from India. I wish they’d put Leica lens on first instead of Huaway – they never listened to me – Eluga was dead and finished. If one in ten people have some device, then it’s pretty rare. It boils down to this feeling that ONLY I have access to this ‘amazing tech’. How does a company create this feeling?
1. Release products strategically across multiple countries (differently in each country)
2. Definitely must aim for the $1000-2000 price range as the new VAIO has been doing until they released colourful but weak (i3-5005U CPUs) PCs…this is to ensure that above all, good products are created.
3. Create ‘legends’ or stories as most PC manufacturers have been doing for decades – but don’t do it too ‘straight’ nor rely on the users to disseminate info. The process must always be: create a truly great product first, then just stay silent about it. Bad reviews will be obscured that way, while the good reviews float all around. TP worked this way. Despite all the KB failures, case fractures, hinges unable to be tightened, motherboards dead, all those HDD failures back in the day, nobody complained because the makers themselves did not say a single word wrong. Other than MIL-SPEC and bland advertising ‘for those who do’ etc only the bare minimum is necessary. So is this relying on users to spread the word? Actually, the company does have to do it themselves. They maintain a presence on the shared platforms and tweak things so that their products/services are seen very positively. Humans are subjective. Say the audio is ‘crystal clear like the Sony glass lamp UX product’ and they will believe it – no audio is ever ‘perfect’ – try DSD; on middle class HiRes earphones, it sounds worse than a pair of cheaper mastering monitors. I like my internal JBL speakers on E550 – somehow makes me feel more ‘like Murakami’ – you also need Signo 0.5 pens and US Papermate yellow coated pencils as well as some other accessories + wake up at around 4am…They want to believe. When they become curious – what part of a PC might inspire curiosity? – then they will ask, and that’s when you have to ensure they get the answers you want them to know. Surface inspired me through its use of magnetic attachment of KB and DC jack. I daresay SP3 had a traditional KB? Correct me on this if wrong.
Before a future marketplace emerges through Blendo Revolutions/Technologies, the above will apply. As for what attracted fans to TP, I guess, keyboard, red dot being useful, the ‘surprise’ you get when you open the lid or turn on TLight for the first time, not knowing what on earth it could be but seems cool anyway, everything that Lenovo did to keep the brand at its seemingly best, good? Support for Linux which I cannot fathom as I’ve never seen drivers released for the OS. That is a question I pose to you also. Other than the three I mentioned, PC business doesn’t look too useful. The prices increased as buyers decreased, although it seems more people are buying again now. I’d have gladly gone back in time to buy T420 at $700 than any current models. But when it comes to TPs, most users are assigned these from a big corporation. True fans are those which see the PC as more than just a box. They’ll see how good the product performs in a set of specific areas, and its rarity among casual users – this is a business PC after all, and its playfulness – those extra additions were really nice but to have them removed and then unreplaced as they have been is most shocking. Blandness. Compare Vista with 10. 10 is bland indeed. Both seem like video games in terms of Aero and icons. Why be bland? As for straight edges and lines – no curves to speak of, I say you’re ruining the User Experience. Each time we take off the bottom cover the top edges/latches crack a little. Seriously. ThinkShutters can just be done by covering the cam with a piece of sticky note. What if the cam is shuttered forever? The replacement of ‘playfulness’ disappoints big time. Very disappointed. Even more so because demand for these old PCs is so high it’s close to impossible to obtain properly. eBay is the usual place, and it definitely is in a period of low-use due to factors beyond my imagination. Huge sales and increased flybuys points, free giveaways and free shipping on select products – before Blendo they want all the people to buy as much junk as they can for their retail therapy. I vowed never to use it again. Ancient eBay was good, says Lanier, but I have more reasons than that. eBay had a rather aggressive seller, and after the ordeal, no one could possibly go back there again. Not for VAIO and definitely not TPs. In the old world, one had no real method of buying 2nd hand unless it was officially refurbished and stocked in store. That’s the ideal. Instead of that, we’ve got overpriced models across a whole range.

Here's a quote from some site http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/335140- ... ard-change: 'I have to work with these Lenovo's all day and they are pieces of junk in most cases. As for the keyboard, I personally don't care much until they move that darn Fn key from where the Ctrl key is on just about every other keyboard.'
'their laptops are slowly becoming just another business laptop instead of being the only easily accessible business laptop (so no Panasonic Toughbooks) with good keyboards' Yes to junk - no matter how you see it, old TPs simply ARE junk. Fn and Ctrl is fine of course. And I disagree with the 2nd quote for Let's Note has some pretty nice characteristics to it. It's very similar to TP in terms of unchanging design and its trademark circular touchpad/front cover with stripes formed by jutting out Mg.