Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Lenovo shows OEM's how to talk Tablet.

Recently I posted about opening discussions with Lenovo, with an intention to help expand their Tablet PC branding here in Australia and assist their own team of resellers in better comprehending the power that is “ink.” I’ve since exposed their X41 to congregations of Tablet enthusiasts and oodles of Tablet newcomers.

While their X41 is fairly conservative (read: old-school) in the looks department, it is a surefire winner when in the hands of a Tablet PC virgin. Even though its looks lack any of the “Shock and Awe” tactics displayed during the recent Iraq conflict, they do facilitate a Tablet first-timer in easily accepting Tablet PC as a conventional form factor; I strongly believe the Motion and Sahara Slates are sex on PCB but also admit that sometimes they seem to intimidate, rather than impress.

Upon approaching Lenovo one quality that was evident from an early stage was their eagerness to target the end-user. They greeted my proposal with the usual OEM apprehensiveness, but managed to move on quickly and issue me with an X41 to play with - thanks mostly to Lenovo BDM, Greg Hunt . I would like to note that it’s not only a show of support witnissed by “Australia’s Tablet Guy” (me) but one also witnessed by Australian Podcast Royalty, Cameron Riley – admitting in a recent podcast we recorded together on "The Productivity Show" that he too has been issued an X41 to trial. (Don’t call your nearest Lenovo representative just yet, remember Cameron and I have lots of leverage)


Tonight while checking in on my mate Rob Bushway, via his GottaBeMobile.com Blog, I saw him pointing to this Lenovo Television Commercial (that he'd ripped on his MCE PC). For those of you living in the United States you may wonder if it was really worth blogging about. What you may not realize however is that life does exist outside of your country; for those of us living in any other country outside of the United States we know only too well that life outside of the United States of America is nothing but “delay-time.” We’ll frequently receive product, information, news and reviews only too often after the fact. One example of the effect this has on non-American’s is the way we watch television, and moreover advertising. Even with all my energies tied up in Tablet PC I have yet to see a Television commercial in Australia that purely marketed Tablet PC; so when Rob posted this commercial, screened during the series of 24 on Fox, I just couldn’t help but link to it!

Enjoy Aussies and Kiwis!!!

Good job Rob, the effort is appreciated Downunder!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed the X41 is probably one of the best of breed convertibles. Though I still prefer the motion, sahara & any other slate models.

One thing I note is that the convertibles seem to come at a significant price reduction to the slates (even though they feature the same wacom digitizer). Economies of scale (literally?) ?

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

I too am a Slate man; having said that I know that convertibles help convey my Tablet message to newcomers more easiily.

Convertibles are cheaper mostly because the hardware used is an adaptation of an existing product. If you look at the Lenovo X41 it's basically a thinkpad with a twist-top...a slate on the other hand is a new design and concept for most OEM's so the machining and manufacture are all new to the task - hence costing is more expensive.