Design Matters

I’ve posted about our China designs before and wanted to point out some of the new products Lenovo is releasing in China.

This is the Lenovo 3000 H100 desktop computer, aimed as a family computer. Ergonomics come into play here, with a unique carrying handle on the top of the computer. The power buttons are also relocated there, as a lot of people tend to place their computers on the ground. These machines look far different from the jet-black ThinkCentre desktops, and for good reason. An interesting tidbit is the keyboard: it is “anti-bacterial” designed to inhibit bacteria growth. Now there’s some virus protection for you.

The Lenovo 3000 Q100 desktop is very much multimedia oriented, as you can tell from its extremely sleek and stylish design. The feature highlighted above is called the JogDial, allowing users to easily access all different kinds of multimedia.

You may have to look closely at this notebook, the Lenovo 3000 Y400, to notice what is unique here. Wait, is there no touchpad? Not quite, but it sure does look like that. The touchpad on this model is “hidden,” incorporated into the palm rest as a nice finishing touch to the sleek design. Now if we can just get those mouse buttons to be hidden and fully functional. Multimedia is the name of the game in this machine, with an integrated subwoofer and slick slot-loading optical drive.

For those who want to get a closer look at these puppies, take a look at our Flickr account for some larger images.

http://egofood.blogspot.com/2006/12/thinkpad-laser…

So who here is brave enough to point a laser at their ThinkPad? Chris DiBona did and shares some photos of his newly stylized T43p.

Someone in the comments asked for pictures of my laser etched laptop. The Thinkpad T43p has a black magnesium finish and takes a laser in a very subtle way. Phillip Torrone from make is going to be making the epilogue laser available to folks to burn their fun things onto their slabs. Anyhow here’s a bit of what I remember from my sessions lasering different objects:

1) Thinkpads: 100% laser power. 150 dpi up to the limit of the image resolution.
2) iMacs: 100% laser, 150 dpi, takes the laser really nicely.
3) Nintendo DS and other soft plastics (blackberries, psps, etc) 60-70% laser, 75 dpi.

Computer customization is nothing new, but aesthetic customization of notebooks is still a new area, populated by the bold!

Attention readers: have you customized your notebook? Post in the comments below and let us know, maybe we can post some of our reader’s own notebook designs.

David Hill

If anyone asked me a few years ago if I would ever have the opportunity to help design the next corporate headquarters building for IBM I would have laughed for hours.

At Lenovo these things actually happen. What an amazing opportunity to help craft such a powerful symbol of the brand and corporate culture. A building is far more than four walls and a roof, at it's best it's an incubator for innovation and collaboration. This concept is at the heart of the Lenovo culture we are creating.

The building is an enabler. Inside are informal meeting areas called "touchdown zones," outdoor meeting areas within a beautifully designed courtyard, and unexpected elements of nature inside the building. For instance the lobby will include an impressive arrangement of natural boulders, a nice juxtaposition to the hard edge of technology. Located on the top floor of building one, the new design center has a studio-like feel I haven't seen in a corporate office for years.

Just being in the space makes you want to create something new.

David Hill

If you are interested in shaping the future of computer design keep reading.

Lenovo Design in Raleigh is growing. I'm currently looking to add several industrial designers, graphic designers and human factors engineers to my team. We have lots of very interesting work on the horizon and are in need of highly talented people to help make it a reality. We work in a highly creative collaborative environment inventing what's next.

So if you are qualified and interested go to the Lenovo jobs web site link and look for the job ID's numbered 917, 916, 915, 914, 913, 912, 910, 909 and fill out an application. Don't ask me to explain the numbering system, it's a corporate thing.

David Hill

It's nice to see the Lenovo 3000 line get some positive recognition. The C200 is a sub-$1000 notebook is a great deal with ThinkPad quality built in. Kevin O'Brien at Notebookreview.com posted a comprehensive review of the machine.

"The Lenovo C200 is hands down an awesome upgrade over the previous C100 model. It seems as though they looked at a list of weaknesses of the previous model, and found ways to go above and beyond improving them. Performance has nearly doubled with the new Core 2 Duo, the hard drive is now the newer SATA standard, the screen hinges feel they could outlast the laptop, and the much enjoyed keyboard stayed just the same."

David Hill

Rob Enderle writes some nice things about our China designs at TechNewsWorld:

"Lenovo China has some really interesting stuff, like a PC that kind of looks like the Baby brother of HAL, the star of "2001 a Space Odyssey". It has a light in the middle of a twist control that you could use to change power modes from low power to automatic, to performance, and the light would change color with every mode.

Lenova China has another small form factor machine that kind of changes personalities as you open a full-length swinging door to expose the drives.

It even has an XPS-like gaming machine.

For laptops, Lenovo China is offering a Coke co-branded PC that is red and looks hot, and the company has one of the coolest smartphones on the market in its product portfolio.

I think it could create something that would have the heart of a ThinkPad, with all the great capabilities of that line, but the looks of a Lenovo, and it could actually set the market on fire.

With the right combination of focus, product and execution, Lenovo might be able to answer my question: What if Apple and Microsoft had partnered more broadly? If just to satisfy my own curiosity, I hope the combined company eventually is able to find its Harry Potter and create the magic it appears capable of conjuring."

US President Sends Industrial Design Treaty to the Senate for Approval

This is an important piece of proposed legislation for the design community. It clearly recognizes design as much more than a superficial treatment and connects it's importance to business success. Design is a critical asset for Lenovo that we take very seriously. It's great to see such strong steps being taken to streamline the ability to protect it  on an international level.

WASHINGTON, DC - US President George W. Bush asked the Senate to approve Industrial Design Treaty, according to a press release by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) stated.

The Hague Agreement on Industrial Design Protection was sent to the US Senate with a request for approval. The treaty was negotiated in 1999, and the Senate referred the matter to the Foreign Relations Committee.

The President’s message said the treaty “should make access to international protection of industrial designs more readily available to US businesses.” 

Under the treaty, US design owners would be able to file for design registration in other countries with a single standardized application in English at either the USPTO or the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  Similarly, renewal of a design registration in each country could be made by filing a single request along with payment of the appropriate fees at WIPO.

David Hill

You knew we couldn't stop with just one.

So we launched another, this one by Matt Kohut, Lenovo's competitive analyst, but in my eyes, the DemoHero of the company. Matt knows our products frontwards and backwards and racks up a bazillion frequent flier miles every year to show off our stuff. What David Hill and the design teams create, Matt demos.  Please check out Inside the Box and bookmark our new master page which will aggregate all blogs — existing and planned at Lenovoblogs.com.

Matt's most recent post may be heresy to some, but it asks the question, "What is the most useless feature on a ThinkPad?" I won't give away his nomination, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with it.

David Churbuck