I Thinkpad, therefore I am
The legendary IBM is selling its PC business to Lenovo, a Chinese PC-maker thus effectively terminating its long-time relationship with the consumer. Times are changing and IBM executives are right in moving on, concentrating on its consulting services. HP and Dell sure must be rubbing their hands in glee but the sale might help the Asian companies in the long run. Lenovo, a distant eighth in PC worldwide market share will definitely bump up its share and rankings and give hope to Acer and Toshiba. The PC market has cut-throat competition and IBM wishes to stay afar from the nitty gritties of this capital-intensive business.
I own a Thinkpad T40 and am a long-time fan of sturdy IBM machines which lend a sense of aura to your geeky image too. Get your hands on a Thinkpad before it is too late.
“I Thinkpad, therefore I am” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=399] was published Monday, December 6th, 2004 at 7:03 pm by Patrix, filed under Internet. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.
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Yeah..its a surprise how heartless business can be. Especially the American corporate never seemed to have any problem with ‘letting it go’.
IBM is reinventing (already did) itself as a services company.
But sometimes I wonder about the soft assets that get hurt when companies make moves like these based on balance sheet and stock price.
Assuming that the dudes who are leading IBM are 100 times smarter than I am, I cant do nothing much beyond raising an eye brow.
5 years ago replyThis is bad news indeed. Atleast for Thinkpad fans. I felt something similar when intel abandoned their tiny microscope that I promised myself I’d get for my kid when she went to school.
5 years ago replySmiley – Reinvention has always been IBM’s forte after it started faltering at the onset of the Information era but seems nicely poised now.Maybe this move to refocus its strategy might be good…pssst rumor has it that they may be interested in buying out Apple.
Chetan – For sentimental reasons, I agree this is bad news but guess in the fiercely competitive PC market, you gotta keep an eye on your bottomline.
5 years ago replyIt’s bad news because, so far in the notebook industry (except for Sony), nobody else has done a thing other than packaging components into the box; nobody else has done a butterfly keyboard that’d flip open wide when opened. Such innovation and design is lost for good when a company closes shop or sells it to an unknown bidder. They may sell cheap, but I seriously doubt if they’d rise above the crop of notebook makers to make a difference. And no, it’s definitely not because of sentimental reasons.
5 years ago replyIBM has always been a battalion of small companies with a common vision of devouring all the money – hardware, software, networking, services, what have you – that a customer wants to spend. So, this kinda comes as a surprise. Lack of innovation maybe? particularly if you contrast it with the way HP has been able to revive its PC business
5 years ago replyChetan – I don’t think you can stifle innovative minds for long. The organization may change but you may see those innovative minds spring elsewhere. Competition always gets out the best in people.
Spaceman – HP unfortunately, even after its mind-altering merger could not compete with Dell. You just need to do things different, instead of different things.
5 years ago reply