[TriLUG] Re: Thinkpads... *** OT ***

[Ryan Leathers]

To build on Phil's point...

The consumer PC market has always been a tough business.  Prices are very
competitive.  Margins are low.  That combination creates an attitude
contrary to innovation.  Still, consumers seem willing to pay a bit more for
innovative features and quality, which moves along the bar of competition.

Now, here we have a Chinese company, who has dominated the Asian market.
They are the Dell of Asia.  Somehow, they have figured out how to compete on
price, quality, and innovative features, in the Asian market.  IBM has not
been able to dominate the domestic consumer market.  IBM has not "figured it
out" in the consumer market.  

Consider also that domestic PC sales are declining in total market as
foreign sales are climbing.  It seems to me that this move may turn out to
be brilliant on IBM's part.  If the IBM brand can be extended into rapidly
growing markets, under the care of a company with a proven track record,
then all the better for IBM.  They earn profits.  The brand increases,
leading to sales in servers and services.  Perhaps some of the formula for
success in the consumer market can be adapted for success outside the Asian
market.  Only time will tell, but in a play for world market share this was
a no-brainer.

Last, but not least, those zany Chinese seem to be "sticking it to the man"
and adopting Linux all over the place.  The last time I checked, Dell (the
domestic leader) was less than helpful toward Linux on consumer products.
The likelihood that IBM consumer products will continue to be Linux friendly
in the future has only increased with this move. 
   
Three cheers.

-----Original Message-----
From: Phillip Rhodes [mailto:mindcrime at cpphacker.co.uk]
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 11:10 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Re: Thinkpads... *** OT ***


Ed Hill wrote:

> I've read that Lenovo (formerly Legend) was already building most of the
> ThinkPads.  So I don't see how the quality is going to suddenly change.
> Lenovo may eventually make a mess of things but the only real change I
> can see so far is a positive one.  Have you noticed the *much* more
> configurable "you build it" options on the web site?  Its a real
> improvement.

It's not like IBM just handed off the business, and wiped their
hands of it.  The IBM guy who washead of the PC Group is becoming
the CEO of Lenovo as part of the deal, and Lenovo is moving their
headquarters to the US.  IBM also maintained something like a 18.9%
ownership of Lenovo.  And I've heard that many (most?) of the PC Group
employees will remain employed by Lenovo.

I for one, don't see any reason to expect a sudden, prounounced
drop in the quality of the systems.


TTYL,

Phil
-- 
Don't blame me, I voted for Badnarik

Free America - Vote Libertarian
www.lp.org

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