Lenovo has eyes on consumer PC market

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To begin with, IdeaPad notebooks will be available at BestBuy.com, Office Depot, Micro Center, Newegg.com, and TigerDirect. But they won't initially be available at physical Best Buy stores. And they won't be sold at Circuit City's stores or Web site.

That they won't be in-store at Best Buy or Circuit City initially isn't a huge surprise.

"Shelf space is at a very, very dear premium," noted Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group, which tracks consumer PC sales. "There are not a lot of good places for manufacturers to go to drive significant consumer volumes" to begin with. Best Buy and Circuit City are really the only retailers in the U.S. that can be counted on to move massive amounts of notebooks these days, he added.

CompUSA was also part of that group, but the chain was bought out recently, and its buyer plans to shutter it in the next few months. Even Wal-Mart, which does well with desktop PC sales, is struggling to sell consumer notebooks, Baker said.

That creates intense competition among manufacturers, and Lenovo will have to learn the ropes as it goes. Retailers will have to ask themselves what Lenovo brings to their customers that Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba, or Sony doesn't.

"If they have to replace (another brand), that's going to cost more money to get that shelf space because for the most part, it's not in the interest of retailers to increase their shelf space," Baker said.

Lenovo says it plans to stand out from the crowd by overhauling its marketing strategy and presenting a single message around the concept of "ideas."

Dell also said recently it will streamline its overall brand message, and that's probably not a coincidence. Both are trying a new tack at the same time: learning how to grab the attention of retail customers by convincing them that their product will enhance not just their processing power, but their lifestyle.

But knowing how to appeal directly to consumers is a relatively new trend for PC makers, so Lenovo isn't that far behind.

"A lot of these companies have gotten away with not being very good" at marketing and branding, said Richard Shim, PC market analyst for IDC. "Only recently some of these companies have started to get better--most notably HP. And Apple's always been good at it."

Now even Dell has gotten into the game with slick advertisements, which sets the bar higher for Lenovo.

"Lenovo is taking the steps, but it's the sort of thing that will take time," Shim said.

Lenovo also says it hopes to distinguish itself in the area of customer support. For example, Marigen said, "if you're in North America and you call us, someone from North America will answer. And they will answer within two minutes."

Added services like that ultimately may be what sets apart players in the jam-packed PC retail space. Some kind of integrated product scheme is the next step for all companies that want to be successful in the consumer technology business, Baker said. Whether it's set-up and installation services bundled with a notebook, or TVs sold as a package with game consoles, customers want an experience, not just a product off the shelf.

"Just moving boxes isn't enough. You have to sell people a solution," Baker added. "Consumers demand it, and profitability requires it."

[Commander_Spock]

Wow "LENOVO"! Remember the IBM (DOETSCH) ThinkPad Anyone!

Wanna sell LENOVO (DOETSCH) ThinkPads...

Now, "All Your (OS/2 (DOETSCH) ThinkPads) Base Are Belong To Us"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU

Happy (Live Long) and Prosperous New Year 2008!

;-) :-$ :-D !

Commander_Spock

[Commander_Spock]

Three Things That OS/2, ELVIS and CHAIRMAN MAO...

... have in common:

1. They are all dead but still folks all around the world remembers them and make money from them.

2. They all had a affinity with the word "central": CHAIRMAN MAO - DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM; ELVIS - CENTER STAGE; and OS/2 - CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT.

3. Now that IBM PC has been sold to China's LENOVO - this, along with the recent formation of the OS/2 WORLD FOUNDATION... there will now perhaps be millions more; and not "thousands of fanatics won?t let these three deceased entities (legends) rest in peace." ;-) :-$ :-) !

Live Long And Prosper!

[Commander_Spock]

Two additional things...

... "Things That OS/2, ELVIS and CHAIRMAN MAO had in common were that that they knew how to stick to their "PROGRAMS": OS/2 - System Calls, Multi-Tasking, Robustness (to wait for DOS, Windows 95, XP...), ELVIS - When To Come On and When To Leave The Stage; and, CHAIRMAN MAO - TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACKWARDS. ;-) !

[h4sweden]

Lenovo/Legend not exactly new to consumer market

I visited Legend in Beijing back in 2001, before it acquired IBM's PC group and changed its name to Lenovo. I remember that they had a fairly well developed marketing effort geared towards Chinese consumers, with displays of colorful and friendly PC's for kids, home computers and more professionally looking systems. If you want to read more about Lenovo/Legend and China's computer market, you can visit my English blog "The Nordic Link"
at http://sandberghans.blogspot.com/
Just search for Beijing's Silicon Valley or Leegend, and the articles should pop up.
Hans

[Commander_Spock]

So....

... the article describes Legend as "a shining star among China?s young and fast-growing computer companies. It has leapfrogged the competition - both domestic and foreign ? and captured 31 percent of the PC market in China, as well as 12 percent of the Asian market (outside Japan.) Last December, it opened a new $200 million PC factory, which can build 2 million desktop computers each year..." How is it that "Legend" did not/could not influence the decision-makers for the OLPC Program that it can also come up with "better" (or competitive) alternative.?

[Dolphie1]

Lenovo can't meet shipment deadlines

Lenovo will not make it if they continue to conduct business like they do with the laptops. Although initially thought to be a one time event, Lenovo habitually misses deadlines on delivery of laptops.
3 customers as of this writing have been waiting since before Thanksgiving for their laptop. They will not receive their laptops until after 2/10/2008 - IF even then. These are not special builds.
Last spring - customers waited 3 months for laptops to be delivered.
There is too much competition for apathy on the part of larger companies.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Lenovo Quality?

When IBM controlled the laptop design, the Thinkpad was a good system. Lenovo built it, but they built it to IBM's harsh specifications. It was a no nonsense business class machine.

When IBM finally sold the laptop line to Lenovo, the quality immediately shifted to budge / economy but still asking high prices. I have to service all of it and there is a very real change in materials, construction and design between IBM Thinkpads and Lenovo models. Lenovo models are very cheaply built and designed. The cases are fragile and frequently broken. The LCD's they use in the X60/T60 line have known issues with a high failure rate.

I'm surprised that they would introduce a consumer line- I'm not sure you can build as system any cheaper than they are now unless they decide to use cardboard instead of plastic for the cases.

I don't see this as being a good thing for consumers.

[Commander_Spock]

What is the "Quality" of the PC?

The "Box", the "Operating System" - OS or the "Network"! "Lenovo built it, but they built it to IBM's harsh specifications. It was a no nonsense business class machine..." So, what has changed from the "IBM T. J. Watson's Philosophy" as far as OS/2 is concerned?

Again, from the subject line: What is the "Quality" of the PC? The "Box", the "Operating System" - OS or the "Network"!

Now, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU

"To Boldly Go" At Warp Speed.

;-) ;-) ;-) !

[TBolt]

ThinkPads rule

I haven't touched the latest models by Lenovo, but I love my ThinkPad R50. If what you say is true, it's a shame that such a great line of portable, business-worthy machines has been ruined.

[bigandcute]

Something for you to think about Lenovo's quality here

http://www.techspot.com/news/23245-lenovo-and-apple-offer-best-laptop-quality-says-rescuecom.html

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2767

"In other words, there's no shortcuts being used in build quality from past ThinkPad notebooks since the Lenovo takeover of IBM -- only enhancements."

[Vegaman_Dan]

I only fix the broken laptops

And the laptops produced by Lenovo using Lenovo designs instead of the IBM ones previously simply have a much higher failure rate and suffer damage in case design than the IBM models.

Make what you will of that- I only work on the broken stuff. Cost of repair of a Lenovo is 2-3x that of any other brand. If your Lenovo works, then that's great.