Why? Does anyone else in this forum provide data when they say general things like "the clickpad is widely unaccepted"? This statement is based on the same method: Watching and reading reviews, user reactions, etc. Have you any data that proves me wrong? No, you don´t.
You are the one who made the "success" statement in the first place. The burden of proof rests with you.
This is a tad harsh to Ibthink here... but really, the facts are very important to us, because we desire greatly to see what direction Lenovo is taking. Hearing that the Chiclet keyboard was generally successful is something we take a second glance to- because some of here have been in the same boat, except we happen to strongly prefer the older keyboards(...like me.) A classmate in APCG 240(Storyboarding and Animation class) had a W530 and I had to type all my documents on it, and I thought after I got used to it... it was alright. But something about the old keys is just nicer... I like the sloped edges, and the flatter contact. I type weird too... I chicken-pick with both index fingers, and cover Enter/Backspace with my middle finger. No home row.
But the Clickpad thing I'm far more bothered about. Because the chiclet keyboard was still designed with touch-typing and IT/Dev in mind, it's a product with a need in mind. (well, it isn't anymore, but anyways...)
The reasons they decided to finalize and endorse the Clickpad... is all completely beyond me. Think of if they took the normal keyboard with separate mechanized keys, and replaced it with a touchscreen, and the "keys", or letters were simply displayed, and not even displaying boxes. Just all vague nonsense. You hit J, but you miss a little bit(because it ALL FEELS THE SAME) so the software goes, "oh. Maybe he actually wants K?" THIS, is the lack of precision and tactile feedback we get with ANY sort of Clickpad feature, clicking action in a Clickpad, etc.
The Trackpoint was made, all that long ago, to be a precise, tactile solution to the mouse pointer problem on a mobile computer. The clickers are separate mechanized buttons, because like typing... every click matters, where the click lands, when the click happens at what time, if the pointer is still moving while the click registers, etc. Integrating the normally separate clickers into the one Clickpad, is a detriment to the precision that power users are normally expecting, especially if they've never used the Touchpad, just the TrackPoint all their life.
So... what is the Clickpad for? It's made to be a cool, slick, smooth solution for ease of use to the ultimate extreme, kind of like when Apple introduced those one-click mouses with those old tube-screen iMacs and eMacs way back in the day. Remember that?
For all the people who don't know any better, and just want to check their Instagram, upload their Vines, social networking, whatever stupid waste of time and human resource.
The Clickpad on the Thinkpad: makes absolutely no sense, doesn't belong on there, isn't fitting with the rest of what makes a Thinkpad a Thinkpad, and it just brings down the original "Premium" tag that we can barely stamp on the Haswell Thinkpads at the moment anyways.
As for modern Thinkpads and the changes, sales, market, statistics, and all the rest:
I believe to an extent... there is no statistics, there is no market. Change isn't guided by surveying either or what the customer wants, the changes are guided by hunches, botched meetings, and mostly trends. True innovation, cleverness, and experimentation as I know it- no longer exists. It's only, "did this sell? Yes? Well, make more of it and keep selling it." The industry is on a runaway train because people buy, and buy, and buy, because of the way things have become now. We've talked about this countless times, but I'll say it again. People buy things, use it up, then throw it away. And that makes the big-wigs the most money, keeps people in work, and pushes research. It's stupid, and results in poor quality units, we ask for perfection(which we used to receive) but it seems now no matter what brand we turn to- we can never get exactly what we want. Because: We may know better than the manufacturers, but 95% of the people who buy stuff don't, or aren't bothered enough to say anything.
Now, I know some of what I've said isn't strictly true, nor does some of it even make complete sense or match other people's experience. But this is based off MY experience. I've repaired countless laptops and desktop computers, other electronics, talked to people who owned specific devices(Android tablets, Smartphones, eBooks, even toys, TVs, and audio equipment), and had my OWN experience in online discussions on forums such as this one and talking with my British friend. So yes, it may seem like a crazy opinion and crazy gathering of statements, maybe even some intolerance and anger has brushed off a bit... but that's because I take this seriously! And this is how I actually feel! I may only be 20(turning 21 this October) but man... am I angry about the direction technology is taking. And the Thinkpad going from the fabulous symphony of engineering that we could be happy to call the W500, to the W540... and the lack of any true sporting wow-factor laptops(W700ds), has only spiraled my faith further downward. The 90s to the 2000s and to the 2010s has seen a dramatic change in how laptops and computers are seen and treated by people...
Unlike the new ClickPad, the new keyboards are widely accepted by the overwhelming majority of users. Lenovo will never go back to the old keyboards, because this change was a huge success for them.