Update: World’s Most Intriguing New Companies
Posted on October 26, 2009 |
On Sept. 1, BusinessWeek put out a call for entries to help us on an exciting new package called "The World's Most Intriguing New Companies."
We were heartened by the strong response to our call. More than 200 companies were submitted over the Web. We also received dozens more entries submitted by several groups we reached out to such as the National Venture Capital Association, the Kauffman Foundation, YouNoodle and Endeavour.
The response was so great that we needed additional time to work through the list. Consequently, we have a new publication date for the project. Instead of closing the project on Oct. 21 as originally planned, we have pushed up the publication date until Nov. 11 to coincide with our Future of Technology report.
So please be a bit more patient. We are excited to share the results and accompanying stories with all of you.
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.
