Lenovo Looks for a Laptop Sweet Spot
Posted on June 23, 2009 |
I spent more than a year tracking Lenovo's designers and engineers as they developed the innovative X300 laptop computer, which was released in March of 2008. This work produced a cover story for BusinessWeek and my book, The Race for Perfect. The X300 was lusted after by corporate laptop aficionados--especially the X301 version, which came out last August and had a more powerful microprocessor. The X300 was a beauty. Very thin. Very light. Solid state storage, so it was durable. But, at about $2,700 initially, the price was too high for this to be a mainstream laptop. Sales of the X300 met Lenovo's objectives, but the goals weren't set that high. Now Lenovo is trying to marry two laptop concepts to come up with a new one that might be appealing to corporations on a grand scale.
I got the briefing last week on the T400s. I don't intend to go all gear-head on you (not my style, generally). This posting is about innovating around market segments and finding sweet spots.
