Thinkpads Forum

Was there ever a magazine for ThinkPads? Did IBM or MicroSoft ever publish a magazine for the end user? (I know both published magazines, but I think they were industrial stuff) What was the best magazine for ThinkPad/WorkPad or notebooks in general from the 1990's to the turn of the century (when the "Legacy Hardware" was made)?

I don't know if there were mags that could be bought in a store, but at least in germany there was an IBM informational released everey month to IBM Resellers I believe. I have 6 of em, the oldest from 4/95, the "newest" from 11/99. In '95 it was called PC Expreß, in '98 it was called IBM PC Information Update, in '99 it was called PC Information Update.

Contents are always News on new IBM Hardware (mostly Thinkpads) and a pricelists of then relevant TP Models. My mags all have 8-12 pages each.

Contains nice Propaganda on the Butterfly, the PowerPC Series and the original 600 for example

Tweakstone wrote:I don't know if there were mags that could be bought in a store, but at least in germany there was an IBM informational released everey month to IBM Resellers I believe. I have 6 of em, the oldest from 4/95, the "newest" from 11/99. In '95 it was called PC Expreß, in '98 it was called IBM PC Information Update, in '99 it was called PC Information Update.

Contents are always News on new IBM Hardware (mostly Thinkpads) and a pricelists of then relevant TP Models. My mags all have 8-12 pages each.

Contains nice Propaganda on the Butterfly, the PowerPC Series and the original 600 for example

How much were the original 600 series ?

I recently purchased a 600 from an original owner on eBay. He included the invoice from IBM with the computer. The cost was over $4000.

most "senior" thinkpads carried list prices of $4000 to $6000 until about 2004 or 2005..
the 760 series and 770 series were around $6000, the 701 butterfly was around $4000 though i think the price for one when they were first introduced was about $6000..

when the T20 series was introduced the original list prices were about $4000..

list prices did come down somewhat but remained above $3000 for the A20's and A30's..

there was some dealing when a lareg enterprise would buy a large number of new thinkpads..

all the foregoing is from memory and subject to revision..

The prices in the mag are for example:

Butterfly -> smallest 701Cs model 8234DM (~4000$), biggest 701C model 13179DM (~6500$)
755CD -> 14717DM-15552DM
820 -> 11986DM-17448DM
850 -> 12787DM-19473DM

There are some more models listed, but sadly the newer mags don't include pricelists anymore.
If you want prices of the other models listed let me know, but atm I'm short in time
There are some more 3xx and 755xx models in the list.

> PC Expreß...BM PC Information Update...PC Information Update

can you make those available in some fashion? PDFs?

I'd love to, but I do not have a scanner, neither do I have a useful camera. Mine is a Nikon Coolpix 2000 - maybe useful to knock intruders out, not to take (detailed) pictures
Furthermore those are completely in german, not too useful to most of you, I suspect..

> no scanner

well, if you make copies, and mail them over, we can arrange
for scanning. These documents constitute valuable additions
to group knowledge, German language no problem.

Maybe I can lend a scanner from work. But definitely not this year anymore, too much other stuff still to do. But I do keep this in mind