The result of all this is Lenovo’s new found appreciation of
the SMBs and midmarket businesses hungry for good performing but inexpensive
laptops. The ThinkPad SL series, which uses the latest technologies found in
Centrino 2, offers starting price at $799 and $899. A few models are available
now with others to follow in August.
For the record, Charles Sune, a segment manager for the
Lenovo SL line, said that Lenovo has no
plans to shutdown the 3000 line and plans to refresh those laptops in the
coming months. When asked about sending mixed signals into the market with
three different lines of notebooks for SMBs and midmarket businesses, Sune said
that there was room in these markets for more than one type of Lenovo notebook.
“There is an enormous opportunity here and this is a very
fast growing space,” said Sune. “We think there is a tremendous amount of
growth in the sub-$1000 notebook market and we ample opportunity here.”
To bolster the argument, Lenovo cited IDC research that showed in the U.S., SMBs will
buy 11.6 million notebooks in 2011 compared to the 7.5 million they bought in
2007.
One of the ways Lenovo is looking attack this space is by
using the hollowed ThinkPad name that has been a mainstay of the enterprise
since IBM first introduced the PC
more than a decade ago.
The new ThinkPad SL series includes the SL300 with a
13.3-inch display, the SL400 with a 14.-1-inch screen and the SL500 with a
15.4-inch display. All three will use the Intel Centrino 2 platform, which
includes a new line of Intel 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo processors with clock
speeds ranging from 2.26GHz to 2.8GHz. All the chips have 6MB of L2 cache and a
1066MHz front side bus.
Some early reviews of the SL400 can be found here.
The new SL line also has several other interesting features.
Lenovo will offer both Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies with the laptops along with
integrated broadband technology from AT&T. The hard disk drive capacity of
the ThinkPad SL notebooks will run 80GB on the low-end to 320GB for more
expensive models.
For workers using their ThinkPads after hours, Lenovo also
included an optional Blu-Ray DVD
player, improved audio and an HDMI port to support high-definition video.
Where Lenovo can really make a difference in the SMB market
is with services. The idea here is that many midmarket or SMB customers have
limited or no IT staff, so why not let the PC vendor, for a price, handle
upgrades and repairs to a company’s notebooks.
In the case of Lenovo, the company is offering ThinkPlus
Secure Business, which offers several services including online data backup,
theft protection, secure password management and automatic system updates.
Later, Lenovo will offer ThinkPlus Complete IT, which is designed for business
with no IT support.
The ThinkPlus Secure Business is available now,
although Lenovo did not provide prices. ThinkPlus Complete IT will be available
later this year.
