Posted by msmash from the why-fix-if-it-ain’t-broken dept.
Lenovo’s widely used ThinkPad laptop hasn’t changed much over the years. Corporate technology leaders say that’s why they love it. From a report: “There’s a lot to be said for familiarity and that consistent experience,” said Ace Hardware Chief Information Officer Rick Williams, whose company uses about 4,000 ThinkPads. The ThinkPad brand of personal computers, originally created by International Business Machines, hit the market in 1992 before Lenovo acquired it, along with IBM’s PC division, in 2005. Since then, the boxy design — originally inspired by the Japanese bento box — has gotten thinner and lighter, but not much else has changed from a design perspective, Lenovo said.
The logo is the same, although in 2005 Lenovo did add the red dot over the “i” in “Think” that remains today. That logo has remained angled at 37 degrees on the device. And on the keyboard the small, red, old-timey trackpoint remains nestled between the “B,” “G” and “H” keys (which Lenovo says some users swear by and some CIOs say they never use). Ports and camera placement have also been relatively consistent. And despite some experimentation with colors, the laptop itself primarily remains its original black. “You’re going to recognize the iconic ThinkPad,” said Tom Butler, executive director for worldwide commercial portfolio and product management at Hong Kong-based Lenovo.
Its strategy might seem counterintuitive in an industry where winners and losers are often determined based on their pace of innovation, and where to stay the same often means to become obsolete. Big consumer tech companies that dominated the early 2000s, like BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, ultimately couldn’t keep pace with competitors and struggled. But for Lenovo, which plays in the enterprise space, it’s paying off. Lenovo has been leading in market share in the worldwide personal computer vendor market, based on unit shipments, on and off for more than 10 years, according to research firm Gartner.
“Now this is a totally brain damaged algorithm. Gag me with a smurfette.” — P. Buhr, Computer Science 354
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